Mooji - Stay only as Awareness

Be aware of this persistent feeling that there’s something more to do in order to attain the Self.
Somehow, you have been brought, so far, to a stage where you are encouraged to leave aside all intentions, projections, fantasies and simply keep quiet inside your being.
Mind is inclined to say this is not enough. It is suggesting you take some action. However, the Master tells you to keep quiet and to focus on the Silence of your Heart rather than the rush of the mind. You are advised to avoid the trap of waiting for something to happen.
There may arise a little tension because of this advice to not go with the movement from mind.
Learn to bear your own Silence by observing the tensions encircling it.
Observe rather than react.
Again, keep quiet.

Stay only as Awareness.

~ Mooji
5th of May, 2014

 http://www.mooji.org/

Jnanadev - The Nectar of Mystical Experience

The Nectar of Mystical Experience


I offer obeisance to the God and Goddess,
The limitless primal parents of the universe.

They are not entirely the same,
Nor are they not the same.
We cannot say exactly what they are.

How sweet is their union!
The whole world is too small to contain them,
Yet they live happily in the smallest particle.

These two are the only ones
Who dwell in this home called the universe.
When the Master of the house sleeps,
The Mistress stays awake,
And performs the functions of both.

When He awakes, the whole house disappears,
And nothing at all is left.

Two lutes: one note.
Two flowers: one fragrance.
Two lamps: one light.

Two lips: one word.
Two eyes: one sight.
These two: one universe.

In unity there is little to behold;
So She, the mother of abundance,
Brought forth the world as play.

He takes the role of Witness
Out of love of watching Her.
But when Her appearance is withdrawn,
The role of Witness is abandoned as well.

Through Her,
He assumes the form of the universe;
Without Her,
He is left naked.

If night and day were to approach the Sun,
Both would disappear.
In the same way, their duality would vanish
If their essential Unity were seen.

In fact, the duality of Shiva and Shakti
Cannot exist in that primal unitive state
From which AUM emanates.

They are like a stream of knowledge
From which a knower cannot drink
Unless he gives up himself.

Is the sound of AUM divided into three
Simple because it contains three letters?
Or is the letter 'N' divided into three
Because of the three lines by which it is formed?

So long as Unity is undisturbed,
And a graceful pleasure is thereby derived,
Why should not the water find delight
In the floral fragrance of its own rippled surface?

It is in this manner I bow
To the inseparable Shiva and Shakti.

A man returns to himself
When he awakens from sleep;
Likewise, I have perceived the God and Goddess
By waking from my ego.

When salt dissolves,
It becomes one with the ocean;
When my ego dissolved,
I became one with Shiva and Shakti.

 Translated by S. Abhyayananda

 Jnanadev, born in 1275, is considered one of the greatest saints of Maharashtra.  
At fifteen, Jnanadev wrote Jnaneshwari, a commentary on the Bhagavad Gita, considered 
the most significant after Shankara, a classic of Hindu thought.  He was a close 
friend and companion of Namdev and they traveled throughout India together.  He died as the 
age of twenty-one in 1296.  It is said that he sat meditating on God as he gave up his 
physical body. 

Attar - Gone mad with Love.

Lost in myself
     I reappeared
          I know not where
a drop that rose
     from the sea and fell
          and dissolved again;
a shadow
     that stretched itself out
          at dawn,
when the sun
     reached noon
          I disappeared.
I have no news
     of my coming
          or passing away--
the whole thing
     happened quicker
          than a breath;
ask no questions
     of the moth.
          In the candle flame
of his face
     I have forgotten
          all the answers.
In the way of love
     there must be knowledge
          and ignorance
so I have become
     both a dullard
          and a sage;
one must be
     an eye and yet
          not see
so I am blind
     and yet I still
          perceive,
Dust
     be on my head
          if I can say
where I
     in bewilderment
          have wandered:
Attar
     watched his heart
          transcend both worlds
and under its shadow
     now is gone mad
          with love.

 



 

Rabindranath Tagore - Life

The same stream of life that runs

through my veins night and day
runs through the world and dances
in rhythmic measures.

It is the same life that shoots in joy
through the dust of the earth
in numberless blades of grass
and breaks into tumultuous waves
of leaves and flowers.

It is the same life that is rocked in
the ocean-cradle of birth
and of death, in ebb and in flow.

I feel my limbs are made glorious by
the touch of this world of life.
And my pride is from the life-throb of
ages dancing in my blood this
moment.

Ravidas – When I existed

When I existed,
You did not.
Now You exist
and I do not:
as a storm lifts waves
from water –
still they are water
within water.
O Madho,
how can we describe
this illusion?
What we believe does not exist.
A mighty king sleeps
on his throne
and in his dream
becomes a beggar.
Seeing his kingdom vanish
before him
he greatly mourns –
such is our condition.
Like the tale
of the serpent
and the rope –
I know a little
of the secret.
Seeing many bracelets
we think gold has many forms –
but it is always forever gold.
In all things
exists the Lord,
assuming countless shapes;
in each pore he plays and sports.
Ravi Dass say,
He is nearer than my hand.
All that comes to pass
is by His will alone.
- See more at: http://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/blog/2013/07/12/ravidas-when-i-existed/#sthash.h4PgAG9y.dpuf

When I existed,
You did not.
Now You exist
and I do not:
as a storm lifts waves
from water –
still they are water
within water.

O Madho,
how can we describe
this illusion?
What we believe does not exist.

A mighty king sleeps
on his throne
and in his dream
becomes a beggar.
Seeing his kingdom vanish
before him
he greatly mourns –
such is our condition.

Like the tale
of the serpent
and the rope –
I know a little
of the secret.
Seeing many bracelets
we think gold has many forms –
but it is always forever gold.

In all things
exists the Lord,
assuming countless shapes;
in each pore he plays and sports.
Ravi Dass say,
He is nearer than my hand.
All that comes to pass
is by His will alone.

English version by Nirmal Dass

 English version by Nirmal Dass

When I existed,
You did not.
Now You exist
and I do not:
as a storm lifts waves
from water –
still they are water
within water.
O Madho,
how can we describe
this illusion?
What we believe does not exist.
A mighty king sleeps
on his throne
and in his dream
becomes a beggar.
Seeing his kingdom vanish
before him
he greatly mourns –
such is our condition.
Like the tale
of the serpent
and the rope –
I know a little
of the secret.
Seeing many bracelets
we think gold has many forms –
but it is always forever gold.
In all things
exists the Lord,
assuming countless shapes;
in each pore he plays and sports.
Ravi Dass say,
He is nearer than my hand.
All that comes to pass
is by His will alone.
- See more at: http://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/blog/2013/07/12/ravidas-when-i-existed/#sthash.h4PgAG9y.dpuf

Shabkar - the Great Oneness

Sky empty and luminous
beyond all attachments,
Remains.
Me, the setting sun
resplendent with light,
Will not remain at all.

One must remain in the vastness,
     alert and lucid,
Letting one's gaze encompass
     the infinity of the sky, 
As though seated on the summit of a mountain
open to all the horizons.

My native land is all lands,
In no particular direction.
My monastery is the solitary mountains,
In no particular place.
My family is all the beings of the six realms.
My name is "Hermit Protected by the Three Jewels."

In the retreat hut that is my own body
I sweep away the dirt ...
My retreat helper is emptiness.

Free indeed is the yogi
who lives everywhere with abandon:
in cave houses atop mountains,
in the shade of blossoming trees,
in a hut amid the open fields,
in a small white cotton tent.
I will sing from afar
a song of joy and peace:
Because of you, O guru, most sublime and wise,
whose kindness surpasses even the Buddha's,
I understand the truth:
that all events and happenings -
the union of form and emptiness -
are nothing but the play of the mind.
Mysterious, incomprehensible,
I realize, is my mind -
the root of prison and freedom,
ungraspable, without substance.
Living in solitude I place my mind
with natural ease upon suchness -
this mind, as light as a wisp of cotton fluff.
The darkness of unknowing
recedes at its own pace,
and the vast sky of the infinite real
wakes with the light of dawn.
"Whether it is or it is not" -
doubts engendered by skepticism -
are qualms with no significance,
questions the Buddhas wouldn't answer.
Oh, the great congregation:
yogis of the mahamudra, famed and wise,
who see the naked face of the real,
while residing atop Tsari Mountain,
a heavenly realm, true abode of dakinis,
where all mystic events flow spontaneous.
Oh, enter the four features
of dharmakaya -- the Reality Essence:
empty as space, brilliant as sun,
transparent as mirror, sharp as eyes.
Let us then travel together
to the realm of the real itself.
As the discourse of philosophers,
conducted by all-knowing scholars
in the debating courtyards,
is a melodious tune to the ear,
so too are songs of experience
sung in solitude by yogis
who have entered the Great Oneness -
mahamudra and Zokpa Chenpo.

 [Translation from tibetan: Thupten Jinpa and Jas Elsner]  

 



 

Milarepa - Beyond concepts

Homage to all the sacred masters.

When we talk about the characteristics of the mahamudra of illuminating wisdom, we talk about three sections: ground mahamudra, path mahamudra, and fruition mahamudra.

First, the ground mahamudra – the essential nature of things, the mind of the buddhas, the mind-essence of sentient beings – does not exist as something that has color or shape, a center or edge. It is free from limitations and partiality, and knows neither existence nor nonexistence. It is neither confused nor liberated. It is not created by causes and not changed by conditions. It is neither altered by the wisdom of the buddhas nor spoiled by the obscurations of sentient beings. It is neither improved by realization nor worsened by confusion.

Path mahamudra is that which is to be practiced within the ground mahamudra as follows: When settling, settle without conceptualizing. When remaining, remain without distraction. When practicing, practice without fixation. When manifesting, let it manifest as dharmata. When freed, practice it as natural freedom.

Beyond concepts, fruition mahamudra is free from something that liberates, free from hope and fear. It is the exhaustion of concepts and phenomena; it is nonfixation, nongrasping, and it is free from utterance and description and is thus beyond concept.

Ground, path, and fruition are to be practiced as one.

Anthony de Mello - A strange kind of illusion

The reason you suffer from your depression and your anxieties is that you identify with them. You say, "I'm depressed". But that is false. You are not depressed. If you want to be accurate, you might say, "I am experiencing a depression right now". But you can hardly say, "I am depressed". You are not your depression. That is but a strange kind of tuck of the mind, a strange kind of illusion.

You have deluded yourself into thinking - though you are not aware of it - that you ARE your depression, that you ARE your anxiety, that you ARE your joy or the thrills that you have. "I am delighted!" You certainly are not delighted. Delight may be IN you right now, but wait around, it will change. It won't last: it never lasts; it keeps changing; it's always changing. Clouds come and go: some of them are black and some white, some of them are large, others small. If we want to follow the analogy, you would be the sky, observing the clouds. You are a passive, detached observer. That's shocking, particularly to someone in the Western culture. You're not interfering. Don't interfere. Don't ''fix'' anything. Watch! Observe! The trouble with people is that they're busy fixing things they don't even understand. We're always fixing things, aren't we? It never strikes us that things don't need to be fixed. They really don't. This is a great illumination. They need to be understood. If you understood them, they'd change.

Metta Zetty - Awareness

Art  Lincoln Harrison

Natural Awareness

"Awareness is all." 
              -- Sunyata

Understanding that "Awareness is all" is one of the keys to understanding the experience of Realization. Recognizing that Awareness is the fundamental Essence of Reality, and our own innate identity, allows us to place our individualized experience and consciousness within a larger context and broader perspective.
Awareness is the backdrop against which all individual consciousness and experience arises. As such, it is the unmoved, ever present Essence of All That Is. We may become actively involved with, or even distracted by, that which appears within the field of individualized consciousness or human experience, but even in the midst of all this mental and physical activity, our inherent, Natural Awareness remains the undisturbed constant.
At our most essential and fundamental level, we are not separate from this pure, unconditioned Awareness. It is our root identity, manifesting within the present moment. It is who and what we are, and it is from within this level of Natural Awareness that a recognition of the completeness and perfection of our fundamental and Essential nature can arise.
In contrast, consciousness [as I prefer to use the term] is the active dimension of mind and emotion -- busy, restless and wandering. Consciousness is naturally characterized by movement and activity; Awareness transcends the distinction between movement and stillness.
Consciousness is inherently personal and individualized, while Awareness is comprehensively nondual.
The field of consciousness and its content constitutes the "foreground" of our individual experience, while Awareness is the fundamental "Background" manifesting through and within All That Is.

The key to recognizing our fundamental and essential
nature is the experiential Realization that individual, 
human consciousness has no separate existence
independent or apart from this fundamental Background
of Awareness:
        We are not separate from the Natural Awareness
        we experience within the present moment.

Since this Infinite Awareness is the backdrop for all individual human experience, the conscious mind has "access" to our innate Awareness within every moment. In fact, the individual identity of the personality or ego cannot exist in the absence of this fundamental, essential Awareness. Wherever the individual "I" appears, it is as a reflection of our inherent, Natural Awareness. In fact, the "I", or individual identity, is nothing other than a reflection of our natural, unitive Awareness within the limits of human consciousness. Recognizing this is simply a matter of focusing our attention (individual consciousness) upon our innate Essence (Awareness).

The Open Secret
Namkhai Norbu has described this Natural Awareness as
the "open secret:"

    This is the open secret, which all can discover
       for themselves.  We live our lives, as it were 
       "inside out," projecting the existence of an "I"
       as separate from an external world which we try 
       to manipulate to gain satisfaction.  But as long
       as one remains in the dualistic state, one's 
       experience has always underlying it a sense of 
       loss, of fear, of anxiety, and dissatisfaction.
       When, on the other hand, one goes beyond the 
       dualistic level, anything is possible. 
                    Namkai Norbu, p. 68
                    The Crystal and the Way of Light

The key, then, is to recognize the limitations inherent within dualistic perception, and begin to identify with the larger part of who we are -- i.e., with the essential, fundamental, underlying background of Awareness, which is the field within which all consciousness and multiplicity appear.
As long as our self-identification is limited to the individual personality, mind, or ego (i.e., as long as it is limited by the dualism inherent in maintaining an individual perspective), we remain frustrated by the inevitable limitions inherent within an individualized identity.
However, when we begin to shift our attention and identification toward that larger dimension of who we are, i.e., toward our fundamental and essential nature (pure, unconditioned, Natural Awareness), much of our individualized anxiety and restlessness will begin to fall away.
We gradually begin to realize that the essence of Reality is not separate from who/what we are at a fundamental and essential level. And, we recognize the freedom inherent within pure Awareness: the innate freedom to flow through our experience, exactly as it is, without resisting even desire and resistance as they arise.
Acknowledging the absolute completeness and perfection of Reality, as it manifests within our own innate Awareness, enables us to see the frustrations and limitations of individual experience within their larger context: they are not separate from Reality (All That Is), and as such, they, too, are a manifestation of this vast and infinite wholeness. Even our personal, individual desires, and the choices we make to change "unacceptable" circumstances, ultimately can be accepted and recognized as part of the essential and fundamental perfection and completeness of All That Is.

See also:

Awareness and Consciousness

 
©1997-2000, Metta Zetty
All Rights Reserved.

http://www.awakening.net/index.html 

Rodney Stevens - The Ultimate Truth

 

 Hi, Rodney. I'm just sitting, watching the flow of thoughts, after reading and enjoying one of your books.

Rodney: Thanks. But you don't have to watch your thoughts, unless you find it enjoyable or relaxing. Observing your thoughts doesn't lead to self-understanding. On the other hand, there is nothing really wrong with it either, I suppose!

Q: A few years ago I read a book called Radical Honesty. Basically, it is a very useful work that encourages people to be "real," to speak directly and openly to reveal previous lies, misunderstandings, etc.

Rodney: I don't know the book. But from your description of it, I can tell that I would have some issues with it. But that is neither here nor there. Maybe the book will be of help to someone at his or her particular stage of spiritual seeking.

Q: Well, you see, that's the thing. The difficulty now, for this [name here] character is that all thoughts and feelings are so much hot air. There doesn't seem to be any motivation whatsoever to "get real" with others in order to create true intimacy and trust.

Rodney: Good man. For how is being truthful with others (however radical or benevolent), going to help with self-realization? Your focus is on relationship with other people, rather than your own self-knowing. You are getting caught up in the blather of life rather than seeing its essence. With that said, why can't we just be naturally honest and gracious with others? No specific plan or agenda is required for that.

Q: Yes, I'm starting to see that clearly now. In fact, I don't believe any of my thoughts, even the apparently authentic, "true," and honest-sounding ones!

Rodney: Some thoughts give a fairly accurate assessment of a situation. And some do not. The key point to keep in mind that you are not your thoughts. You simply are not those mental appearances that come and go all throughout the day and evening. They certainly have their place, and we couldn't function without them. But we are also totally beyond them. We are that that knows that they are present. There is a presence that knows that they are appearing. You have to to keep coming back to that fact to see how all of this comes about.

Q: Right. And it can certainly confound things in relationships, can't  it?

Rodney: Absolutely.

Q: If my relationship with a woman is based on showing my thoughts and feelings in order to arrive at intimacy, then it kind of sinks the ship to recognise any thoughts and feelings that come up are so much like soap bubbles. Why give them any attention or even vocalise them? It seems like listening to your partner's stories and offering up some yarns of your own are "oxygen" for relationships. Supposedly, anyway. But if you do nothing, these thoughts and feelings ebb away on their own.

Rodney: Exactly. But just to be clear: Relationships are not a gauge of who and what you are, however beautiful, moving and intriguing the other person maybe. You are not a relationship; you are a oneness that is without limit or form. Savor the enormity of that fact. Though it is impossible to conceptualize, it is actuality, right here and now. There is no working your way towards it or making yourself "worthy" to obtain it. Indeed, you can't obtain it! You are already that. You are already that oneness without limit or form. There is nothing to do but to see it for yourself. Once this is understood, then everything else pretty much falls into place, including, of course, relationships.

Q: I would like to set up time for a phone consultation if that's okay—just to go over some of the things we talked about here?

Rodney: No problem...But just to wrap things up a bit: Stay with the fact that thoughts come and go; they are appearances and approximations, at best. They basically help us to communicate with others and to live safely and productively while in this temporary human form. Thoughts, bodies, and functions all change. But you are that which is aware of those appearances and changes. Zero in on just what that presence of awareness is. It is right there, right now. And that is the ultimate truth.

http://radianceofbeing.blogspot.co.nz/ 

Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee - You Are Oneness

http://www.goldensufi.org/oneness_site.html

http://www.workingwithoneness.org/video-audio 

Atisha - The Greatest....

The greatest achievement is selflessness.
The greatest worth is self-mastery.
The greatest quality is seeking to serve others.
The greatest precept is continual awareness.
The greatest medicine is the emptiness of everything.
The greatest action is not conforming with the worlds ways.
The greatest magic is transmuting the passions.
The greatest generosity is non-attachment.
The greatest goodness is a peaceful mind.
The greatest patience is humility.
The greatest effort is not concerned with results.
The greatest meditation is a mind that lets go.
The greatest wisdom is seeing through appearances.

Atisha’s life story Here