Nisargadatta Maharaj - I Am Unborn

From the book: I Am Unborn

4. This ‘I am’ business

5th December 1979

Maharaj: There is a customer for everything,
but what is the cause of your
beingness being the customer?
The primary concept is the ‘I am’, out of it are created all other concepts.
You have come from the primary concept, so long as you have the need to be,
you have this prolific wonderful world and all the Gods are available.
The distinction between the world and Brahman has come
because you want to sustain your beingness, the ‘I am’,
the manifest world is made important by you because you want to be.
But when the need for beingness is not felt, like in sleep or in short,
when consciousness is not conscious, there is no need.
When consciousness is there, it will always need consciousness
when consciousness is not there, where is the need for anything at all?
Of what use is the availability of the world? The world and its lord are only
a nuisance in my state. The need to be is bondage, no needs no bondage.
I will not be stupid and ask how I am in the absence of consciousness.
There can be no talk about the state prior to consciousness.
In the realm of consciousness are the experiences and all the talk.
The one, who has recognized, understood and transcended oneself
can talk, otherwise, one is caught in the pincer movement of Maya;
you are caught by your own tentacles (identification with body-pincer). Because of
your own deception, you ask questions, you are caught and enmeshed in
more and more concepts.
Information about myself in the absence of consciousness, nobody can tell me.
I also don’t need it, since that is so; you are non-plussed by me.
I have full knowledge prior to beingness, which is eternal. In the waking state
there is struggle and fatigue, in deep sleep there is relaxation, it is a cycle.
What is the purpose?

Visitor: To maintain consciousness. What is beyond it?

M: Whatever without it (consciousness) is perfect. Only that is, nothing else.
My body is universal, not individualistic. What is this ‘I am’ business?
Understand it and be apart from it, transcend it. Just be.

V: Where has maharaj’s ego gone?

M: It is not individualistic, it is manifestable, but when it is manifest,
it is no more an individual suffering.

V: what is the use of self-realization?

M: Nishkam(stable) Parabramhan .When you are hit by pain, the doctor gives you an ointment. Who is the customer? Pain is the customer, not you.

V: does the pain go?

M: It is just an event happening, understand it and go through it.
The ‘I’consciousness is pain as well as happiness.
You wake up happy in the morning, as the day goes by there is unhappiness.
Without ‘I’ consciousness can you understand anything?
The ‘I’ consciousness is unhappiness therefore you seek happiness.
That which you do with effort is unhappiness.
Even now, I am speaking from deep sleep, so it is coming from sleep.
I have enjoyed it, so I speak. Sleep is darkness, complete –
that is ignorance. In darkness, ignorance I speak. Knowledge from ignorance is
ignorance. This knowledge is an illusion. A child born of ignorance says I am Brahman.

V: Who is doing this?

M: That is the trap of your mind. If you do not experience your mind, you
are liberated. Why do you call anything logical? Waking and sleep states
are your experience. You don’t accept what I say, because in doing so you
are nothing. In reality nothing can be given and taken, call it logic,
experience. Take it as you like, here acceptance and rejection are transcended.
Parents have given you a name; apart from that can you give me your name
or identification? The Atman is formless, names and forms are of the body.
Consciousness is also an illusion, non-personal, non-verbal. The moment
you do not recognize mind and body you feel no pinch, can you say the sky
is diseased? Food contains both the useful and the waste, so what is good
or what is bad is relative. Flowers are eventually dirt
but while buying they cost fifty rupees. I don’t discuss Brahman or Maya;
I tell you my story which is your story as well. With Atmajnan
(Self-knowledge) the ‘I’ consciousness is not there.
Then I don’t worry about God or illusion.
The ‘I am’ is the starting point of both misery and happiness. 

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Art Ram Onkar

Mooji - Perfume of Being

Recognize the natural silence of your own Self. 

Silence is not a behavior. 

Silence is not a practice. 

It is the natural perfume of being. 

Trying to be still is not stillness. 

Find that stillness inside, which simply Is. 

There is no one to practice it. 

It can only be recognized. 

It is here. 

It is not hiding. 

It is not hurried. 

Simply stop identifying with the past, future, present or with any self image. 

Be open to being nothing. 

No thing. 

So that internally you are simply like a space. 

But this is not an inert space, but a space full of aliveness. 

Still don’t define yourself as aliveness. 

Don’t define yourself at all. 

Simply remain in natural self-attention.

http://www.mooji.org/

1956 Housewife on Acid: Veteran's Hospital LSD 25 Testing

Lao Tzu - Being and non-being

When people see some things as beautiful, other things become ugly.

When people see some things as good,
other things become bad.

Being and non-being create each other.

Difficult and easy support each other.

Long and short define each other.

High and low depend on each other.
Before and after follow each other.

Therefore the Master acts without doing anything and teaches without saying anything.

Soko Morinaga - (from) Novice To Master

"The truly still mind, with which you were born, is the mind that moves freely. Without ignoring anything, it reacts wholeheartedly to everything it encounters, to everything on which it reflects. And yet, for all that, it is the mind that is never seized by anything, but is always ready to react on the spot to whatever it encounters next. The mind that is still is the mind that never forfeits its freedom and is able to constantly keep rolling and rolling and rolling.
The word samadhi carries within itself two absolutely contrary meanings: "perfect reception" and "perfect non-reception." In order to "perfectly receive" each instant as it occurs, it is necessary to "perfectly not-receive" the previous instant and the future instant. No matter how accurately and in what detail a mirror may reflect what is before it in one instant, should it be turned to face a new direction, the previous reflection will disappear without a trace and the mirror will faithfully reflect what is newly before it.
The mind that neither ignores anything nor attaches to anything is not something that is obtained through training. It is the natural power with which you entered this world."

Novice To Master preview HERE

Tao Te Ching - Unknowable

"The ancient masters of the Tao
Had subtle marvelous mystic penetration
A depth that cannot be known.
It is exactly because that they are unknowable
That we are forced to pay attention to their appearance.
Hesitant, like one crossing an ice-covered river.
Ready, like one afraid of his neighbors on all sides.
Dignified, like a guest.
Loose, like ice about to melt.
Straightforward, like an uncarved block of wood.
Open, like a valley.
Obscure, like muddy water.
Who can be muddled, and use clarity to gradually become lucid?
Who can be calm, and use constant application for eventual success?
The one who holds to this path does not crave fulfillment.
Precisely because he does not crave fulfillment
He can be shattered
And do without quick restitution." 

Robert Rabbin - On the nature of mind

ONE

just beyond the thinking mind
is an unending field of love and quiet beauty
one can lie down there and live in eternity

this field cannot be seen by the mind
it cannot be known by the mind
it can only be found and felt through Silence

the thinking mind cannot know this kind of beauty and wonder
the thinking mind has no feeling
it has no soul
it can only calculate distance and weight and price
the thinking mind does not love
it does not laugh
it does not cry
the thinking mind only argues and defends
it justifies its soulless nature with violence

that is why we must live in Silence
not in the thinking mind
that is why we must learn what that life is like
lived within Silence
lying in the fields of beauty
where we can feel the soul and Silence of existence

and now we can cry and laugh and love
and now we live in this field of eternity
where the thinking mind is just a single flower
barely visible in the midst of tall grasses
under blue skies and hundreds of suns whirling and spinning within and without

TWO

such notions as ultimate reality or absolute truth
shouldn’t seduce us

all of these and other similar terms are trophies
that the mind brings back
from the hunt for freedom
they are not the actual animal
not even close
a case full of trophy-words only tricks us into believing
we have seen the animal of freedom
even captured it

the real animal of freedom will never say such things
Silence never says such things
as the mind does
all mired in trophies and celebrity

THREE

questions about the nature of existence
cannot be answered by the mind
because the mind can never know the truth of existence

the truth of existence can only be known in Silence
by Silence

when questions are met with Silence
the questioning mind falls into that Silence and becomes silent

in Silence, the questioning mind returns to the pristine source of existence
where knowledge
knowing
and the knower
merge into one body
and then that body disappears into its truer body

the one that is beyond questions and answers
life and death
existence and non-existence

that body is Silence
and within that body there are no minds
no questions
and no answers

freedom is always before or after words or between words
and the only real trace of freedom is Silence

look for the footprints of Silence within words and then follow them
away from those traps
into the lair of clear light

FOUR

a friend told me he had trouble
being here now

I asked him to show me where he went when he wasn’t
being here now
at first he didn’t understand
after additional conversation he said
well I guess I just get lost in my thoughts

there wasn’t much to say after that

we are always here now
for there is no other place we can be
either we are here now
seeing things as they are
touching the shiny shimmering skin of real life
or else we are lost in the abstract world of thoughts about life

these thickets of thoughts create a barrier to what is actually occurring
that barrier makes us feel disconnected and lost
which makes us feel that we are not being here now

of course we are

we are just here
trapped within our thoughts about life
thinking we aren’t here now

but where else could we be

FIVE

the mind constantly classifies and categorizes
that is its nature

the mind organizes all our perceptions thoughts and emotions
into a coherent picture
this picture becomes our definition of reality
our definition of reality becomes our certainty
which becomes our conceit
which becomes our vanity
which becomes our pride
pride is an enormous seawall that separates us from life
from the swells and tides of the creator’s delight

our soul does not want definitions
our soul wants Silence

the ocean of existence is too huge
too vast
too mysterious
to explain or define

we understand existence when we lose ourselves in Silence
and become as children running and shouting
on the beaches of paradise

SIX

a friend asked me how he could
kill his mind

I asked why he wanted to go to all that trouble
why wage war on the poor little thing
after all isn’t there room enough in reality for a mind

a mind is a useful thing
providing we don’t use it incorrectly
our mind only bothers us when we become what our mind is thinking
or believing
or perceiving

if we live in Silence
our mind will settle to scale
like a single flower in an endless mountain meadow

if we just keep our attention on the meadow
then our mind becomes our friend
and a beautiful one at that
why do we need to kill a single flower in an endless meadow

when the mind becomes silent
the mind becomes the image of Silence in this world
thoughts and beliefs about the nature of self and reality
no longer arise in such a mind

they are no longer relevant
so we don’t have to kill it
a single flower in a vast meadow

http://www.elephantjournal.com/author/robert-rabbin/

D.S.Z. Roshi - Kill Everything In You

When you've killed everything in you
that might interfere with the Clear Sky (the Dark Expanse)
light and darkness are just the same nothing.

How could anything be different?
It's clearly the same.
How could anything be the same?
It's clearly different.

How could anyone suffer?
Who exists to have a mind
or to become a Buddha?
Cure yourself of sick thinking,
and the un-ease of life is gone.
Gone beyond, utterly beyond,
bo-ji so wa-ka!

Hearing all day long you hear nothing.
Seeing all day long you see nothing.
Laughing you don't laugh.
Crying you don't cry.

You're liberated, and can live as you want
and you don't understand the idea of "bondage"
or getting "caught up in something."

You're always a golden buddha.
You're always a temple in calm starlight.
A demon playing the bamboo flute,
a samurai hiding in the long grass --
whatever! you're always just THAT.

If the darkness comes cut it down.
If the brightness comes cut it away.
If people come don't answer them.
If the Clear Sky comes shatter it completely.
If the Void ever comes, slash it with your sword.

Destroy all thinking, let it go
and both objects and subjects disappear.
What's left can't even be imagined,
so how do you expect me to give it to you?

There isn't any one or any body left anywhere
to experience this,
to pretend or deny IT alone "exists"
or to ever say a single word about anything.

 http://diamondsutrazen.blogspot.gr/

Kabir - The Bride-Soul

The Bride – Soul Longs for Her Husband, The Beloved

When will that day dawn, Mother;
When the One I took birth for
Holds me to His heart with deathless love?
I long for the bliss of divine union.
I long to lose my body, mind, and soul
And become one with my husband.
When will that day dawn, Mother?
Husband, fulfil now the longing I have had
Since before the universe was made.
Enter me completely and release me.
In terrible lonely years without You
I yearn and yearn for You.
I spend sleepless nights hunting for You,
Gazing into darkness after You,
With unblinking hopeless eyes.
When will that day dawn, Mother?
When will my Lord hold me to His heart?
My empty bed, like a hungry tigress,
Devours me whenever I try to sleep.
Listen to your slave’s prayer –
Come and put out this blaze of agony
That consumes my soul and body.
When will He hold me to His heart?
When will that day dawn, Mother?

Kabir sings, “If I ever meet You, my Beloved,
I’ll cling to you so fiercely You melt into me;
I’ll sing from inside You songs of union,
World-dissolving songs of Eternal Bliss.”

Shams Tabrizi - Be nothing

drawing Trici Venola

“When everyone is trying
to be something,
              be nothing.

Range with emptiness.

Human should be like a pot.

As the pot is hold
by its emptiness inside,
human is hold
by the awareness
     of his nothingness.” 

Li Po - The transparent wine

If heaven loved not the wine,
A Wine Star would not be in heaven;
If earth loved not the wine,
The Wine Spring would not be on the earth.
Since heaven and earth love the wine,
Need a tippling mortal be ashamed?
The transparent wine, I hear,
Has the soothing virtue of a sage,
While the turgid is rich, they say,
As the fertile mind of the wise.
Both the sage and the wise were drinkers,
Why seek for peers among gods and goblins?
Three cups open the grand door to bliss;
Take a jugful, the universe is yours.
Such is the rapture of the wine,
That the sober shall never inherit. 

 

About Li Po HERE