Nisargadatta - Wrong focus of attention

Vénus et Cupidon - Rubens

Question: What do you see?
Maharaj: I see what you too could see, here and now, but for the wrong focus of your attention. You give no attention to your self. Your mind is all with things, people and ideas, never with your self. Bring your self into focus, become aware of your own existence. See how you function, watch the motives and the results of your actions. Study the prison you have built around yourself by inadvertence.

By knowing what you are not, you come to know your Self. The way back to your Self is through refusal and rejection. One thing is certain: the real is not imaginary, it is not a product of the mind.
Even the sense ‘I am’ is not continuous, though it is a useful pointer; it shows where to seek, but not what to seek. Just have a good look at it. Once you are convinced that you cannot say truthfully about your self anything except ‘I am’, and that nothing that can be pointed at, can be your self, the need for the ‘I am’ is over — you are no longer intent on verbalizing what you are.
All you need is to get rid of the tendency to define yourself. All definitions apply to your body only and to its expressions. Once this obsession with the body goes, you will revert to your natural state, spontaneously and effortlessly.
The only difference between us is that I am aware of my natural state, while you are bemused. Just like gold made into ornaments has no advantage over gold dust, except when the mind makes it so, so are we one in being — we differ only in appearance. We discover it by being earnest, by searching, enquiring, questioning daily and hourly, by giving one’s life to this discovery.

Adyashanti - knowledge through not knowing

photo http://koppdelaney.blogspot.gr/

As the great mystic Saint John of the Cross said, 

‘In order to come to the knowledge you have not, you must go by a way in which you know not.’ 

I love this quote. It’s entirely paradoxical. It is what I spoke about earlier in what my teacher referred to as ‘the backward step:’ coming to knowledge not through knowing, but through not knowing. 

When you find yourself at this boundary of your mind, when you’ve gone to that place where you realize that you can’t go any deeper within the mind, then you begin to stop. You begin to let go. You begin to embrace this unknowing. 

Embracing the unknown makes us wonderfully and beautifully humble- not humiliated, but truly humble. 

It’s a state of great availability, and it’s from this state of openness, from this willingness to realize how little we really know, that our consciousness begins to shift. This is the doorway in. 

Dive fully into this openness and avail yourself of the intimacy found there, in not knowing……

http://www.adyashanti.org/

Hafiz - Awake, my dear

Awake awhile.  

It does not have to be
Forever,
Right now.

One step upon the Sky’s soft skirt
Would be enough.  

Hafiz,
Awake awhile.
Just one True moment of Love
Will last for days.  

Rest all your elaborate plans and tactics
For Knowing Him,
For they are all just frozen spring buds
Far,
So far from Summer’s Divine Gold.  

Awake, my dear.
Be kind to your sleeping heart.
Take it out into the vast fields of Light
And let it breathe.  

Say,
“Love,
Give me back my wings.
Lift me,
Lift me nearer.”  

Say to the sun and moon,
Say to our dear Friend,  

“I will take You up now, Beloved,
On that wonderful Dance You promised.” 

Meister Eckhart - four meditations on seeing by David Appelbaum

With reference to Meister Eckhart. The mystery of seeing. This is what Meister Eckhart brings for our edification. There is no skill or method to attain the act of seeing, even though the means may have value in themselves. The student of seeing has to unlock the mystery first, Eckhart tells us, and it begins—here, now—with the question of who is seeing. Until the question is raised to a new pitch, the intensity needed to undergo the mystery will be wanting.

read more Here

 

Jiddu Krishnamurti - Meditations

PDF download  Here

Meditation is one of the most extraordinary things, and if you do not know what it is you are like the blind man in a world of bright colour, shadows and moving light. It is not an intellectual affair, but when the heart enters into the mind, the mind has quite a different quality: it is really, then, limitless, not only in its capacity to think, to act efficiently, but also in its sense of living in a vast space where you are part of everything. Meditation is the movement of love. It isn't the love of the one or of the many. It is like water that anyone can drink out of any jar, whether golden or earthenware: it is inexhaustible. And a peculiar thing takes place which no drug or self-hypnosis can bring about: it is as though the mind enters into itself, beginning at the surface and penetrating ever more deeply, until depth and height have lost their meaning and every form of measurement ceases. In this state there is complete peace not contentment which has come about through gratification but a peace that has order, beauty and intensity. It can all be destroyed, as you can destroy a flower, and yet because of its very vulnerability it is indestructible. This meditation cannot be learned from another. You must begin without knowing anything about it, and move from innocence to innocence.

The Bhagavad Gita - The Way of Love

The Way of Love

Arjuna:

Of those who love you as the Lord of Love,
Ever present in all, and those who seek you
As the nameless, formless Reality,
Which way is sure and swift, love or knowledge?
  Sri Krishna:

For those who set their hearts on me
And worship me with unfailing devotion and faith,
The way of love leads sure and swift to me.

Those who seek the transcendental Reality,
Unmanifested, without name or form,
Beyond the reach of feeling and of thought,
With their senses subdued and mind serene
And striving for the good of all beings,
They too will verily come unto me.

Yet hazardous
And slow is the path to the Unrevealed,
Difficult for physical man to tread.
But they for whom I am the goal supreme,
Who do all work renouncing self for me
And meditate on me with single-hearted devotion,
These will I swiftly rescue
From the fragment's cycle of birth and death
To fullness of eternal life in me.

Still your mind in me, still yourself in me,
And without doubt you shall be united with me,
Lord of Love, dwelling in your heart.
But if you cannot still your mind in me,
Learn to do so through the practice of meditation.
If you lack the will for such self-discipline,
Engage yourself in selfless service of all around you,
For selfless service can lead you at last to me.
If you are unable to do even this,
Surrender yourself to me in love,
Receiving success and failure with equal calmness
As granted by me.

Better indeed is knowledge than mechanical practice.
Better than knowledge is meditation.
But better still is surrender in love,
Because there follows immediate peace.

That one I love who is incapable of ill will,
And returns love for hatred.
Living beyond the reach of I and mine
And of pleasure and pain, full of mercy,
Contented, self-controlled, firm in faith,
With all their heart and all their mind given to me –
With such people I am in love.

Not agitating the world or by it agitated,
They stand above the sway of elation,
Competition, and fear, accepting life
Good and bad as it comes. They are pure,
Efficient, detached, ready to meet every demand
I make on them as a humble instrument of my work.

They are dear to me who run not after the pleasant
Or away from the painful, grieve not
Over the past, lust not today,
But let things come and go as they happen.

Who serve both friend and foe with equal love,
Not buoyed up by praise or cast down by blame,
Alike in heat and cold, pleasure and pain,
Free from selfish attachments and self-will,
Ever full, in harmony everywhere,
Firm in faith – such as these are dear to me.

But dearest to me are those who seek me
In faith and love as life's eternal goal.
They go beyond death to immortality.

Chapter 12 of the Bhagavad Gita, translated by Eknath Easwaran. The Bhagavad Gita ("Song of the Lord"), is India's best-known scripture, a masterpiece of world poetry on which countless mystics have drawn for daily practical guidance. The Gita is a dialogue between Sri Krishna, an incarnation of the Lord, and his friend and disciple Arjuna, a warrior prince who represents anyone trying to live a spiritual life in the midst of worldly activity and conflict.

Michael Damian - the swift way of happiness

THE SWIFT WAY OF HAPPINESS

When there has been sufficient life experience, there comes the pressing urge to know the truth of one's being and to let that truth have its way in our lives at all cost. We don't know what the cost is beforehand, in terms of particular changes that may arise when we reach a new level of integrity and insight. Yet we are inevitably freed by the changes.

We can do this the hard way, which means long suffering and dissatisfaction caused by false compromise and the denial of truth and love in our lives, or we can go the swift way of living with deeper integrity and insight. When it comes from truth, it will always be seen that what happens is right and good. The fruit of the lesson or the loss is greater happiness and integrity of being.

If a so-called lesson is just a process of suffering and struggling, it is not a lesson. It is actually the refusal of the lesson. In that refusal and struggle we say we are learning or awakening, but unless it brings release and freedom, it is just repetitive suffering. We do not wake up just by suffering. We wake up and find happiness to the extent that we bring our suffering to the light of day, which is the light of consciousness, God, truth, or love. That light always cancels the heaviness of repetition and time, returning our awareness to its intrinsic timelessness, which is registered as flow and lightness.

The "place" where this correction happens is right here in our personal circumstances, because with integrity and insight, the personal life becomes a more faithful reflection of the divine truth --- a life of harmony, simplicity, and joy. That is why waking up and living in freedom is not about getting rid of the personality. It is about letting the personality and one's whole life be illumined and uplifted by truth rather than driven by ignorance, the state of (painfully) ignoring the truth of our being. 

 

 

 

http://www.michaeldamian.org/ 

Wahiduddin Richard Shelquist - The Journey of the Heart

Glory Arriving

Without a sound
no trumpets blaring,
no shouting,
Yet mightier than sound,
louder than trumpets,
engulfing everything,
Glory arrives
silently,
effortlessly.
Every where,
in every moment,
in every situation,
All there is, is glory arriving,
graciously,
endlessly.



Differences and Distinctions

Differences and distinctions
are merely a starting place,
a place of the beginning,
a place before understanding.
There is a Wholeness,
Completeness,
beyond differences,
beyond distinctions.
The one who does not know
will see differences and distinctions everywhere,
While the one who truly knows
will see the wonders of Divine Glory everywhere.

Let it Shine

Oh dear friend,
you are so Divinely beautiful
when you let the wondrous Light of God
shine through you !
Oh dear friend
cast off those old burdens,
cast off those thoughts of ‘I’, ‘me’ and ‘mine’,
and let the Light shine !

 

Wahiduddin's Web

download the collection Pdf

http://wahiduddin.net/poems/pdf/Journey_of_the_Heart.pdf

Sufi Music I Rumi Poetry - HU - The Zikr

Ansari of Herat - Invocations

Invocations

In the name of God,
Most gracious,
Most merciful.

O thou munificent one
Who art the bestower of all bounties,
O thou wise one
Who overlookest our faults,
O self-existent one
Who art beyond our comprehension,
O thou omnipotent one
Who hast no equal in power and greatness,
Who art without a second:
O thou merciful one
Who guidest stray souls to the right path,
Thou art truly our God.

Give purity to our minds,
Aspiration to our hearts,
Light to our eyes.
Out of thy grace and bounty
Give us that which thou deemest best.

O Lord, out of thy grace
Give faith and light to our hearts,
And with the medicine of truth and steadfastness
Cure the ills of our life.

I know not what to ask of thee.
Thou art the knower;
Give what thou deemest best.

O God, may my brain reel with thoughts of thee,
May my heart thrill with the mysteries of thy grace,
May my tongue move only to utter thy praise.

I live only to do thy will;
My lips move only in praise of thee.
O Lord, whoever becometh aware of thee,
Casteth out all else other than thee.

O Lord, give me a heart
That I may pour it out in thanksgiving.
Give me life
That I may spend it in working
For the salvation of the world.

O Lord, give me that right discrimination
That the lure of the world may cheat me no more.
Give me strength
That my faith suffer no eclipse.

O Lord, give me understanding
That I stray not from the path.
Give me light
To avoid pitfalls.

O Lord, keep watch over me
That I stray not.
Keep me on the path of righteousness
That I escape from the pangs of repentance.

O Lord, judge me not by my actions.
Of thy mercy, save me,
And make my humble efforts fruitful.

O Lord, give me a heart
Free from the flames of desire.
Give me a mind
Free from the waves of egoism.

O Lord, give me eyes
Which see nothing but thy glory.
Give me a mind
That finds delight in thy service.
Give me a soul
Drunk in the wine of thy wisdom.

O Lord, to find thee is my desire,
But to comprehend thee is beyond my strength.
Remembering thee is solace to my sorrowing heart;
Thoughts of thee are my constant companions.
I call upon thee night and day.
The flame of thy love glows
In the darkness of my night.

Life in my body pulsates only for thee
My heart beats in resignation to thy will.
If on my dust a tuft of grass were to grow,
Every blade would tremble with my devotion for thee.

O Lord, everyone desires to behold thee.
I desire that thou mayest cast a glance at me.
Let me not disgrace myself.
If thy forgiveness awaits me in the end,
Lower not the standard of forgiveness
Which thou hast unfurled.

O Lord, prayer at thy gate
Is a mere formality:
Thou knowest what thy slave desires.
O Lord, better for me to be dust

And my name effaced
From the records of the world
Than that thou forget me.

He knoweth all our good and evil.
Nothing is hidden from him.
He knoweth what is the best medicine
To cure the pain and to rescue the fallen.
Be humble, for he exalteth the humble.

I am intoxicated with love for thee
And need no fermented wine.
I am thy bird, free from need of seed
And safe from the snare of the fowler.
In the kaaba and in the temple,
Thou art the object of my search.
Else I am freed
From both these places of worship.

Lord, when thou wert hidden from me
The fever of life possessed me.
When thou revealest thyself
This fever of life departeth.

O Lord, other men are afraid of thee
But I – I am afraid of myself.
From thee flows good alone,
From me flows evil.
Others fear what the morrow may bring;
I am afraid of what happened yesterday.
O Lord, if thou holdest me responsible for my sins
I shall cling to thee for thy grace.
I with my sin am an insignificant atom.
Thy grace is resplendent as the sun.

O Lord, out of regard for thy name,
The qualities which are thine,
Out of regard for thy greatness,
Listen to my cry,
For thou alone canst redeem me.

O Lord, intoxicate me with the wine of thy love.
Place the chains of thy slavery on my feet;
Make me empty of all but thy love,
And in it destroy me and bring me back to life.
The hunger thou has awakened
Culminates in fulfillment.

Make my body impervious to the fires of hell;
Vouchsafe to me a vision of thee in heaven.
The spark thou hast kindled, make it everlasting.

I think of no other,
And in thy love care for none else.
None has a place in my heart but thee.
My heart has become thy abode;
It has no place for another.

O Lord, thou cherishest the helpless,
And I am helpless.
Apply thy balm to my bleeding heart,
For thou art the physician.

O Lord, I, a beggar, ask of thee
More than what a thousand kings may ask of thee.
Each one has something he needs to ask of thee;
I have come to ask thee to give me thyself.

If words can establish a claim,
I claim a crown.
But if deeds are wanted,
I am as helpless as the ant.

Urged by desire, I wandered
In the streets of good and evil.
I gained nothing except feeding the fire of desire.
As long as in me remains the breath of life,
Help me, for thou alone canst hear my prayer.

Watch vigilantly the state of thine own mind.
Love of God begins in harmlessness.

Know that the prophet built an external kaaba
Of clay and water,
And an inner kaaba in life and heart.
The outer kaaba was built by Abraham, the holy;
The inner is sanctified by the glory of God himself.

On the path of God
Two places of worship mark the stages,
The material temple
And the temple of the heart.
Make your best endeavor
To worship at the temple of the heart.

In this path, be one
With a heart full of compassion.
Engage not in vain doing;
Make not thy home in the street of lust and desire.

If thou wouldst become a pilgrim on the path of love,
The first condition is that thou become
As humble as dust and ashes.

Know that when thou learnest to lose thy self
Thou wilt reach the Beloved.
There is no other secret to be revealed,
And more than this is not known to me.

Be humble and cultivate silence.
If thou hast received, rejoice,
And fill thyself with ecstasy.
And if not, continue the demand.

What is worship?
To realize reality.
What is the sacred law?
To do no evil.
What is reality?
Selflessness.

The heart inquired of the soul,
What is the beginning of this business?
What its end, and what its fruit?
The soul answered:
The beginning of it is the annihilation of self,
Its end faithfulness,
And its fruit immortality.

The heart asked, what is annihilation?
What is faithfulness?
What is immortality?
The soul answered:
Freedom from self is annihilation.
Faithfulness is fulfillment of love.
Immortality is the union of immortal with mortal.

In this path the eye must cease to see
And the ear to hear,
Save unto him and about him.
Be as dust on his path;
Even the kings of this earth
Make the dust of his feet
The balm of their eyes.


 Abdullah al-Ansari, often referred to as Ansari of Herat, was a Persian poet and mystic in the Sufi tradition of Islam, who died in 1088. The verses collected here have been translated by Sardar Sir Jogendra Singh in The Persian Mystics: Invocations of al-Ansari al-Harawi(London: J. Murray, 1939).

JIDDU KRISHNAMURTI - Keep far away

You should never be here too much; be so far away that they can’t find you, they can’t get at you to shape, to mould.

Be so far away, like the mountains, like the unpolluted air; be so far away that you have no parents, no relations, no family, no country; be so far away that you don’t know even where you are.

Don’t let them find you; don’t come into contact with them too closely.

Keep far away where even you can’t find yourself; keep a distance which can never be crossed over; keep a passage open always through which no one can come.

Don’t shut the door for there is no door, only an open, endless passage; if you shut any door, they will be very close to you, then you are lost.

Keep far away where their breath can’t reach you and their breath travels very far and very deeply; don’t get contaminated by them, by their word, by their gesture, by their great knowledge; they have great knowledge but be far away from them where even you cannot find yourself.

For they are waiting for you, at every corner, in every house to shape you, to mould you, to tear you to pieces and then put you together in their own image.

Their gods, the little ones and the big ones, are the images of themselves, carved by their own mind or by their own hands.

They are waiting for you, the churchman and the Communist, the believer and the non-believer, for they are both the same; they think they are different but they are not for they both brainwash you, till you are of them, till you repeat their words, till you worship their saints, the ancient and the recent; they have armies for their gods and for their countries and they are experts in killing.

Keep far away but they are waiting for you, the educator and the businessman; one trains you for the others to conform to the demands of their society, which is a deadly thing.

They have a thing called society and family: these two are their real gods, the net in which you will be entangled.

They will make you into a scientist, into an engineer, into an expert of almost anything from cooking to architecture to philosophy.

Keep far, far away; they are waiting for you, the politician and the reformer; the one drags you down into the gutter and then the other reforms you; they juggle with words and you will be lost in their wilderness.

Keep far away; they are waiting for you, the experts in God and the bomb throwers: the one will convince you and the other show you how to kill; there are so many ways to find God and so many, many ways to kill.

But besides all these, there are hoards of others to tell you what to do and what not to do; keep away from all of them, so far away that you cannot find yourself or any other.

You too would like to play with all of them who are waiting for you but then the play becomes so complicated and entertaining that you will be lost.

You should never be here too much, be so far away that even you cannot find yourself.

photo Martin Stranka

U. G. KRISHNAMURTI - "Not Knowing"

FIRST  AND  LAST  LECTURE  GIVEN  IN  1972  AT  THE  INDIAN  INSTITUTE
OF  WORLD  CULTURE  IN  BANGALORE

U.G. :  Let me, at the very outset, thank the authorities of the Indian Institute of World Culture for giving me this opportunity to meet you all here. I was very reluctant to accept the invitation of Mr. Venkataramaiah. But somehow, if I may use that word, I was trapped into this kind of a thing.

As Mr. Kothari pointed out, I don't like to give talks at all. You all seem to be very fond of listening to speeches, talks, lectures, discussions, discourses, conversations, and so on. I do not know if at any time you realise for yourself and by yourself that you never listen to anybody or anything in this world. You always listen to yourself. I really don't know what to say. I don't know what you want to listen to and what I am expected to do.

This is supposed to be a discourse and a dialogue. I very often point out to those who come to see me and talk things over that no dialogue is possible and no dialogue is necessary. It may sound very strange to you, but, nevertheless, the fact does remain that no dialogue is possible and yet no dialogue is necessary.

If you will permit me, I will say a few words, to set the ball rolling, as it were. That's a very hackneyed and over-worked expression, but that would serve our purpose.

I am going to say a few words about the state of 'not knowing'. How can anybody say anything about the state of 'not knowing'? I have necessarily to use words. Can we use words without indulging in abstract concepts. I say we can. But I do not, at the same time, mean that it is a non-verbal conceptualisation. That is a funny thing – there is no such thing as non-verbal conceptualisation at all. But, perhaps, a few words like this will enable you to understand that the methods of thought prevent you from understanding the limitations of thought as a means to directly experience life and its movements.
   
This state of 'not knowing', or natural state, is not just my particular state. This is as much your natural state as it is mine. It is not the state of a God-realised man, a Self-realised man. It is not the state of a holy man. It is the natural state of every one of you here. But since you are looking to somebody else and you are reaching out for some kind of a state of liberation or freedom, you are lost. So, how can one understand the limitations of thought? Naturally, the only instrument we have is the instrument of thought. But what is thought? I can give you a lot of definitions, and you know a lot of definitions about thought. I can say that thought is just matter; thought is vibration; and we are all functioning in this sphere of thought. And we pick up these thoughts because this human organism is an electromagnetic field. And this electromagnetic field is the product of culture. It may sound very inappropriate on this occasion to say that in order to be in your natural state, all that man has thought and felt before you must be swept aside and must be brushed aside. And that means the culture in which you are brought up must go down the drain or out of the window. Is it possible? It is possible.  But, at the same time, it is so difficult, because you are the product of that culture and you are that. You are not different from that. You cannot separate yourself from that culture. And yet, this culture is the stumbling block for us to be in our natural state.

Can this natural state be captured, contained and expressed through words? It cannot. It is not a conscious state of your existence. It can never become part of your conscious thinking. And then why do I talk of this state of 'not knowing'? For all practical purposes it does not exist at all. It can never become part of your conscious thinking.

Here, I have to explain what I mean by the word 'consciousness'. You and I mean two different things, probably – I don't know. When do you become conscious of a thing? Only when the thought comes in between what is there in front of you and what is supposed to be there inside of you. That is consciousness. So, you have to necessarily use thought to become conscious of the things around you, or the persons around you. Otherwise, you are not conscious of the things at all. And, at the same time, you are not unconscious. But there is an area where you are neither conscious nor unconscious. But that 'consciousness' – if I may use that word – expresses itself in its own way; and what prevents that consciousness to express itself in its own way is the movement of thought.

What can anyone do about this thought? It has a tremendous momentum of millions and millions of years. Can I do anything about that thought? Can I stop it? Can I mould it? Can I shape it? Can I do anything about it? But yet, our culture, our civilisation, our education – all these have forced us to use that instrument to get something for us. So, can that instrument be used to understand its own nature? It is not possible. And yet, when you see the tremendous nature of this movement of thought, and that there isn't anything that you can do about it, it naturally slows down and falls in its natural pattern.

continue reading  Here

Kabir - Tree of Life

 Tree of Life

    No longer am I
    The man I used to be;
    For I have plucked the fruit
    Of this precious tree of life.

    As the river flows down the hills
    And becomes one with the sea,
    So has this weaver’s love flowed
    To become one with the Lord of Love.

    Go deeper and deeper in meditation
    To reach the seabed of consciousness.
    Through the blessing of my teacher
    I have passed beyond the land of death.

    Says Kabir: Listen to me, friends,
    And cast away all your doubts.
    Make your faith unshakable in the Lord,
    And pass beyond the land of death.

    — Guru Kabir, Rendering by Eknath Easwaran