Carlos Castaneda - Does this path have a heart?

You must always keep in mind that a path is only a path.
Each path is only one of a million paths.
If you feel that you must now follow it,
you need not stay with it under any circumstances.
Any path is only a path.

There is no affront to yourself or others in dropping a path
if that is what your heart tells you to do.
But your decision to keep on a path or to leave it
must be free of fear and ambition.

I caution you: look at every path closely and deliberately.
Try it as many times as you think necessary.
Then ask yourself and yourself alone this one question.
Does this path have a heart?

All paths are the same. They lead nowhere.
They are paths going through the brush or into the brush
or under the brush of the Universe.
The only question is: Does this path have a heart?

If it does, then it is a good path.
If it doesn’t, then it is of no use.

All books of C.Castaneda in ONE  PDF

Ulla AllU - None to One

art Rassouli

ONE is forlorn when thoughts are born.
The source being ONE and the same,
by TWO we separation claim.
Thoughts bring the notion of ME and YOU,
When ONE goes to TWO!
ME and YOU is perceived and to us brought,
By way of consciousness through thought.
The thought is interpreted and heard, duality is stirred.
With reversal of these phrases,
TWO goes to ONE and finally NONE!

NONE is not by thoughts ruled,
NONE can not by anything be fooled!
NONE is effortless and spontaneous BEING,
With ABSOLUTE clear SEEING!

http://www.beyondpoetry.com/

Adyashanti - The Heart of Relationship

‘It is in the arena of personal relationships that the illusion of a separate self clings most tenaciously and insidiously. Indeed, there is nothing that derails more spiritual seekers than the grasping at and attaching to personal relationships. The revelation of perfect unity reveals the true impersonality of all relationships. The ego always interprets “impersonal” as meaning cold, distant, and aloof. However, “impersonal” simply means not personal, or void of a separate me and a separate you. The mind cannot comprehend a relationship without separate entities, much as a character in a dream cannot comprehend that all other dream characters are simply manifestations of the same dreamer. Yet when the dreamer awakens, he instantly comprehends that the entire dream, and all the characters in it, were none other than projections of his own self. In the dream there is the appearance of separate, personal entities in relationship, but upon awakening, one comprehends the impersonal (non-separate) Self that is the source of all appearances.

To deeply inquire into the question “Who is another?” can lead to the direct experience that the other is one’s own Self — that in fact there is no other. However, I have seen that for most seekers, even this direct experiential revelation is not enough to transform the painfully personal ways they relate. To come to this profound transformation requires a very deep investigation into the implications inherent within the experiential revelation that there is no other. It is in the daily living of these implications that most seekers fail. Why? Because, fundamentally, most people want to remain separate and in control. Simply put, most people want to keep dreaming that they are special, unique, and separate, more than they want to wake up to the perfect unity of an Unknown which leaves no room for any separation from the whole.’

 

https://www.adyashanti.org/

Dadu Dayal - Dwellers of the Ocean of Bliss

True Sants Focus Our Attention Upon God

Sadagati Sadhava re

Saints are the true redeemers,
They make one see the Creator face to face.
Having themselves crossed the ocean
of the world, they take others across;
They are the saviors of beings.
Dyed in the colour of the Supreme Lord,
They have the blameless Name
as their support;
Always truthful, disciplined, blissful and contented,-
Their wisdom and reach knows no bounds.
In eternal love, in eternal ecstasy,
In eternal company with the essential Truth;
In eternal union, in eternal life,
In eternal knowledge and contemplation are they absorbed.
Crest-jewel of all, bestower of bliss to all,
They are rare in this world.
They are the Swans, the dwellers of the Ocean of Bliss,
Who come for the good of others, 0 Dadu.

AUM is the Self indeed.

OM! This syllable is this whole world.
Its further explanation is:
the past, the present, the future
everything is just the word OM.
And what-ever else that transcends threefold time
that, too, is just the word OM.

For truly everything here is Brahman;
this Self (Atman) is Brahman.
This same Self has four fourths:
the waking state, outwardly cognitive...
the dreaming state, inwardly cognitive...
the deep sleep state, unified, a cognition-mass...
and the state of being one with the Self,
the cessation of phenomena, tranquil....

This is the Self with regard to the word OM,
with regard to its elements.
The elements are the fourths, the elements:
the letter A, the letter U,the letter M.

The waking state, the common-to-all-men, is the letter A...
the sleeping state, the Brilliant, is the letter U...
the deep-sleep state, the Cognitional, is the letter M...
The fourth is without an element,
with which there can be no dealing,
the cessation of phenomena, benign, without a second.

This AUM is the Self indeed.

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from the  Upanishads

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source text http://www.onelittleangel.com

 

Rumi - "It is I"

If there is any lover in the world,
0 Muslim, it is I.

If there is any believer, infidel,
or Christian hermit, it is I.

The wine, the cup-bearer, the musician,
the instrument and the music,
The beloved, the candle, the liquor
and the inebriation, it is I.

The seventy-two religious sects in the world
Do not really exist;
I swear by God every religious sect-it is I.

Earth, air, water and fire: do you know what they are?
Earth, air, water and fire-and the soul as well; it is I

Truth and falsehood, good and evil,
pleasure and suffering, beginning and end,
Knowledge, learning, asceticism,
devotion and faith-it is I.

Be assured that the fire of hell and its flames,
Paradise, Eden and the angels of heaven-it is I.

Heaven and earth and all they hold:
angels, demons, and men - it is I.

'Sailor' Bob Adamson - Livingness is going on effortlessly

If I ask you,
‘What is wrong with right now, without thinking about it?’,
what would you say? 

You have to pause for a moment
and realise that if there is no thought there,
there is nothing wrong. In that instance you have also stopped it.
That is it. That is where it is.
That may seemingly be only instantaneous at the moment.
But if that sinks in often enough
—that there is nothing wrong unless I am thinking about it
—then even if the thinking is going on,
you know that you don't have to take any delivery of the thinking.
That is the cause of all my problems.

In that split second without that thinking I still existed.
I still was! Focus more with that.
The mind is not the be-all and end-all that we have believed it to be.
Believing that we can't live without it or can't exist without it,
we have placed so much importance on it.
See that it is not so important.
Though it is a wonderful creative instrument,
it is not so important.
The livingness is going on effortlessly, right now. 

http://www.sailorbobadamson.com/

Dionysius the Areopagite - Mystical contemplation

Antoine Caron-Dionysius the areopagite-converting the pagan philosophers-1570s

Do thou, dear Timothy, in the diligent exercise
of mystical contemplation,
leave behind the senses and the operations of the intellect,
and all things sensible and intellectual,
and all things in the world of being and non-being,
that thou mayest arise by unknowing towards the union,
as far as is attainable,
with Him who transcends all being and all knowledge.

For by the unceasing and absolute renunciation
of thyself and of all things, thou mayest be borne on high,
through pure and entire self-abnegation,
into the superessential radiance
of the divine Darkness.

source text onelittleangel

Hakuin - The body of the Buddha

Not knowing how near the Truth is,
People seek It far away, -- what a pity!
They are like one who, in the midst of water,
Cries imploringly for a drink of water,
Or like the son of a rich man
Who wanders away among the poor. ...

Those who testify to the truth of the nature of the Self,
Have found it by reflecting within themselves,
And have gone beyond the realm of mere ideas.
For them opens the gate of the oneness of cause and effect;
And straight runs the path of non-duality ...
Abiding with the Undivided amidst the divided,
Whether going or returning, they remain forever unmoved.
Holding fast to, and remembering, That which is beyond thought,
In their every act, they hear the voice of the Truth.

How limitless the sky of unbounded freedom!
How pure the perfect moonlight of Wisdom!
At that moment, what do they lack?
As the eternally quiescent Truth reveals Itself to them,
This very earth is the lotus-land of Purity,
And this body -is the body of the Buddha.

source text onelittleangel

from "The Life of Shabkar"

"Handsome body-
Like a rainbow in space.

Sweet Voice -- Like Brahma's song.

Vast Mind -- Like the wide expanse of sky: To the manifestation of the timeless teacher's (guru's) body, speech, and mind, I bow down.

Look with stainless wisdom-eyes on myriad beings, each one once our mother. Grant your blessing that, having swiftly realized the absolute body, I may manifest the true body of form.

I, the yogin Tsogdruk Rangdrol, will now sing some essential advice: Fortunate one's, who wish to achieve buddhahood in this very life, with this very body: Listen with respect.

The root of all that exists, Samsara and nirvana, is one's own mind. Primordially, mind is emptiness.

Merge then into the sky-like absolute expanse,
Empty, luminous, beyond clinging.

Outside, inside, eyes open or closed,
Day night; asleep, awake:
No difference

During practice, after practice,
Mind, appearances;
blend them.

Continuously, without wavering.
Merge completely with this vibrant, sky-like state.

Even if you died right now, you would have no regrets. Death is release into the luminosity of dharmakaya;
Out of the expanse of the absolute body, the body of form arises.

Although on this path, there can be no mistakes,
It is still wiser to avoid complacency.

Once you have achieved stability in meditation, do not remain satisfied with that alone.

If you persist, practicing the instructions to transmute the body of this life into a body of light, you will become like deathless Lotus Born One (the Primordial Buddha).

Therefore, fortunate heart-son, practice the development stage of the yidam deity. Then consider your body as the yidam, apparent, yet empty;

Consider the outer world as a Pure Land, a celestial palace, and ALL beings as gods and goddesses.

In the center (sushumna) of your divine body, visualize the three channels and the chakras, the Ah and the Hung [syllables].
Holding prana in the vase, practice the Tummo meditation [consisting of the synchronization of pranayama and visualization), the main practice of the completion stage.

Abandoning the nine actions of the three doors, utilizing the postures [asanas] and crucial points of the sense doors, the sense-fields, energy and awareness, meditate on the Dzogchen practice of Thoegal.

The distance covered by a great ship pulled on land by a hundred men for a hundred days, can be covered in just one day when it is put to sea.

In the same way. a single day of meditation performed with real stability of mind brings more progress than a hundred days practicing the development and completion stages before stability of mind has been reached.

If you persevere in practice, your skandhas will be freed in a body of rainbow light in this very lifetime, in this very body.

If you lack diligence, even though you do not achieve the rainbow body in this life, your death will occur without suffering and be accompanied by marvelous signs and [so-called] miracles." Pages 275-276

... and again

"Like a magician transforming one thing into another, you must learn to exchange non-virtue for virtue, and for the sake of all beings release the great waves of Bodhisattva activity. If you accomplish this perfectly, the fruit of the rupakaya will open....

The alchemy of the development stage will transmute the iron of your three doors into the gold of deities, mantras, and samadhi. The tummo fire [kundalini heat] of the completion stage will refine time again and again the rough ore of the skandhas and cast it as the golden image, non-duality.

Having clarified the butter churned from the milk of the Sutrayana and the mantrayana, enjoy with pleasure the medicinal milk of the Mahamudra. If you taste the dakinis' profound and secret heart-essence, in this life you will achieve the rainbow body.

Train the fledgling wings of your mind to fly through the fontanelle window of your body's house. Continuously let mind bask in the sun --
Luminous emptiness free from mistaking thought [objects] as [solid, separate, or] real -- Then, lasting bliss will [be allowed to] arise [naturally by itself]..."

~~~~

From "The Life of Shabkar: An Autobiography of a Tibetan Yogi" translated by Matthieu Ricard, and published by SUNY, 1994.

Meister Eckhart - Eye

“The eye through which I see God 

is the same eye through which God sees me; 

my eye and God’s eye are one eye, 

one seeing, one knowing, one love.”

Jeff Foster - Silence is the only way.

No wonder ‘you’ cannot see this: this is a freedom
that a ‘person’ will never see.
How could a ‘person’ ever accept that everything happens spontaneously,
of its own accord, in the absence of the person? The Tao (or Oneness,
or God, or Life, or Spirit, or Emptiness…) has no center, no mind,
no personal volition. It appears as everything, but itself is nothing.
Nothing manifesting as a world, as everything there is and is not.
And there is only the Tao, which is to say there is no Tao at all.
And even to speak of it, even to think of it, even to do that is to lose it forever.
And yet the thinking and the speaking are fully the Tao;
there is nothing that it is not.
It is the no-thing by which everything appears.
And it’s not even that, because it’s not an ‘it’ at all.
When speaking of the Tao, silence is the only way.

 

http://www.lifewithoutacentre.com/

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Sachal Sarmast ~ 'Tis love I live in

Friend, this is the only way
to learn the secret way:
Ignore the paths of others,
even the saints' steep trails.
Don't follow.
Don't journey at all.
Rip the veil from your face.

'Tis not in religion I believe
'Tis love I live in.
When love comes to you.
Say Amen!

Neither did I roll rosary, nor did I ponder and pray,
I went to no mosque or temple, nor bow in adoration to any,
Sachal is lucky everyday, love is all around him.

You by yourself, know what is in your form!
Why chant 'Allah Allah'? Find Allah within you.
You listen, you see, Allah's word is witness,
There is no doubt, O Sachal! that the Lord is One!

We are, what are we?
We know not, what we are!
For a moment we are blessed
For a moment we are accursed
Some moment we pray and fast
Some moment we are free spirits
Now we declare, 'Only we exist'
Now we declare, 'We don't exist'
For a bit, our heart is calm
In a bit, we weep rivers
Now we say, 'We are self-realized'
Now we ask, 'Who are we?'
'Sachal' we are only That eternally
What other contracts can we make here?

I was sitting by the roadside,
When the path became clear to me;
In the palace the Beloved I saw,
a glimpse the Beauty gave;
Through the window was the vision,
a glimpse the Beauty saw;
Take care of the ignorant;
Our bond was made for a reason.
I truly recognized the Lord,
My companion He sure became;
'He is the Creator of all
and intrinsic to all',
All doubts in this perished;
With happiness shall I carry
Sisters, if your trust I have.
All the journeys, all the manifestations
The Dear One's own;
Friend 'Sachal' know this correctly,
Slumber has created illusions.
Sachal regarded love as the path to spirituality:
'Tis not in religion I believe
'Tis love I live in.
When love comes to you.
Say Amen!
'Tis not with the infidel
that love resides
Nor with the faithful.


 [translation by Gul Agha and Jethmal Parsram Gulrajani]  


 




 

 

Ramprasad - Songs

I drink no ordinary wine,
but Wine of Everlasting Bliss,
As I repeat my Mother Kali's name;
It so intoxicates my mind that people take me to be drunk!
First my guru gives molasses for the making of the Wine;
My longing is the ferment to transform it.
Knowledge, the maker of the Wine,
prepares it for me then;
And when it is done,
my mind imbibes it from the bottle of the mantra,
Taking the Mother's name to make it pure.
Drink of this Wine, says Ramprasad,
and the four fruits of life are yours.


Tell me, brother, what happens after death?
The whole world is arguing about it --
Some say you become a ghost,
Others that you go to heaven,
And some that you get close to God,
And the Vedas insist you're a bit of sky
Reflected in a jar fated to shatter.
When you look for sin and virtue in nothing,
You end up with nothing.
The elements live in the body together
But go their own ways at death.
Prasad says: you end, brother,
Where you began, a reflection
Rising in water, mixing with water,
Finally one with water.


Once for all, this time,
I have thoroughly understood;
From One who knows it well,
I have learnt the secret of bhava.
A man has come to me from a country
where there is no night,
And now I cannot distinguish
day from night any longer;
Rituals and devotions have all grown profitless for me.
My sleep is broken;
how can I slumber any more?
For now I am wide awake
in the sleeplessness of yoga.
O Divine Mother,
made one with Thee in yoga-sleep at last,
My slumber I have lulled asleep for evermore.
I bow my head, says Prasad,
before desire and liberation;
Knowing the secret that Kali
is one with the highest Brahman,
I have discarded, once for all,
both righteousness and sin.

 



 

Rabindranath Tagore - Go not to the Temple

Go not to the temple to put flowers upon the feet of God,
First fill your own house with the Fragrance of love…

Go not to the temple to light candles before the altar of God,
First remove the darkness of sin from your heart…

Go not to the temple to bow down your head in prayer,
First learn to bow in humility before your fellowmen…

Go not to the temple to pray on bended knees,
First bend down to lift someone who is down-trodden…

Go not to the temple to ask for forgiveness for your sins,
First forgive from your heart those who have sinned against you.

Face to Face With Sri Ramana Maharshi