Jeff Foster - Question everything

art Martin Stranka

“THE INTELLIGENCE IN DOUBTING YOUR SPIRITUAL TEACHER
“The moment you follow someone
you cease to follow Truth”
- J. Krishnamurti

If your spiritual teacher promises you unending bliss, an end to all your problems, freedom from anger and doubts and sorrows, permanent access to higher states and realms, the complete transcendence of all human concerns…
… well, then, your doubting is ingenious, and holds infinite creativity.
Walk away from anyone who makes you such promises, and never look back. Then, you are free. Because, finally, you trust yourself, as you did when you were very young and hadn’t yet split yourself in two, the knower versus the known, the certainty versus the doubt. You are no longer a carbon copy of someone else, buying into the dreams of another, clinging to second-hand promises. You are original again. No longer seeking what others seem to have, 

but resting in original knowing.
The old spirituality is dying, friends. The spirituality of “I am more enlightened than you”, “I am in a higher state”, “I am awakened and you are not”, “I have the answers”, “I have transcended anger/fear/doubt” - those teachings of superiority and separation, fear-based teachings that pathologize our humanity and dismiss our pain, are now crumbling under their own weight. For their foundations are constructed of fear rather than compassion, and they cannot hold themselves up in the blinding light of truth.
No matter what anyone says, however enlightened they claim to be, however many books they’ve written, however many fans or followers or disciples they have, however shiny their smiles and charismatic their personalities, however perfect and ‘spiritually correct’ their language, they really do not know. They are a child of life, as you are, innocent at the core. They are not the authority, have no privileged knowledge, do not hold answers. (And of course I include myself here!). They can only share their journey, their insights, what they have noticed. They are what you are, consciousness itself, and on that level, you are profoundly equal. There is no ‘club’ for the awakened. No wave in the ocean is more ‘ocean’ than any other wave. Life knows no levels in this way. Humility reaches everyone in the end.
Nobody can be ‘in’ a higher state. States come and go. Even the most blissful feelings, the most ecstatic highs, cannot be permanent, just as no wave can be permanent in the ocean, and cannot be maintained. If you are chasing states and experiences, striving for the ‘next big thing’, you will be exhausted before long. And that is a wonderful thing; it is the beginning of a great awakening.
Your exhaustion is sacred, see. Your sorrow is not a sign of your ignorance, but a fresh expression of life. Your fears are not mistakes. Your pain is not an indication that you are far from awakening, or that you are being punished for your ignorance. Your longing is not something that needs to be eradicated. Even your confusion is holy. And your doubts have kept you supple, curious, open; they have protected you from the greatest pain of all: arrogance.
You are not a victim, friend, but so damn alive. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. 

It would be their loss, anyway.
Be clear about this: Meeting pain, being curious and kind towards these tender parts of yourself, is not the same as wallowing. Embracing sorrow is not the same as indulging in it. Staying with discomfort is not the same as feeding it. Honouring your fears is not the same as clinging to them.
Friend, do not be ashamed of your thoughts or feelings, however uncomfortable or intense or unexpected or uncommon they are. And do not compare yourself, ever - even with the shiniest teachers and seemingly infallible ‘experts’. No matter what anyone says, your experience is valid, and yours to embrace, and ultimately trustworthy. You MUST walk your own path, walk into the Unknown, even if you quake with terror as you walk. Anyone who makes you ‘wrong’ for feeling the way you feel, anyone who tells you that your experience means that you are much lower down the spiritual ladder than they are, anyone who pathologizes or pities you or calls you a victim, anyone who labels you as ‘self-indulgent’ for your courageous willingness to truly meet your pain and walk your path, is only talking about themselves, their own fear, their own inability to courageously walk, their own unwillingness to be present, open their heart, be vast, love openly.
You tire of the promises. You get exhausted from trying to be something that you are not. You get sick of walking another’s path, following someone else, trusting their truth over your own gut. It is not your nature, to follow, to worship, to create external gods.
Slow down. Come closer. Get curious. 

Question everything.
And most of all, trust your doubts as you walk.”

 http://www.lifewithoutacentre.com/

Robert Adams - Totally empty

art Jane Adams

“The only way you will ever awaken is when you are totally empty
of all the learnings, of all the teachings, empty of everything.
Then there is freedom.
But as long as you have one iota of knowledge, it will keep you back.
Human knowledge is a death knell for spirituality.
All of the knowledge has to be transcended.
For a complete awakening the words have to go.
There are really no words.
As an example, self-inquiry brings you to the place where you inquire,
‘Who am I?’
But it is not the ‘Who am I?’ that wakes you up.
It is the silence after you say, ‘Who am I?’ and you keep still.
Then the time comes when the stillness wakes you up and
you become free.”

 

 

 

Lao Tzu - Subtle perception

If you want to shrink something,
you must first allow it to expand.

 

If you want to get rid of something,
you must first allow it to flourish.

If you want to take something,
you must first allow it to be given.

This is called the subtle perception
of the way things are.

The soft overcomes the hard.

The slow overcomes the fast.

Let your workings remain a mystery.
Just show people the results.

 

 

 

 

Nisargadatta Maharaj - Keep quiet

Keep quiet, undisturbed, and the wisdom and the power 

will come on their own. 

You need not hanker. 

Wait in silence of the heart and mind. 

It is very easy to be quiet, but willingness is rare. 

You people want to become supermen overnight. 

Stay without ambition, without the least desire, exposed, vulnerable, 

unprotected, uncertain and alone, completely open to and welcoming life as it happens, 

without the selfish conviction that all must yield you pleasure or profit, 

material or so-called spiritual.

Suryanarayana Raju - On Self Inquiry

art  Jane Adams

The mind cannot do self-inquiry, because whatsoever the mind does will strengthen it. Any doing on the part of the mind makes the mind stronger. So self-inquiry by the mind is impossible. Mind doing something means mind perpetuating itself and that is not in the nature of things. But self-inquiry happens through watching the mind, not by doing anything.

The watcher is separate from the mind; it is deeper than the mind, higher than the mind. The watcher is always hidden behind the mind. A thought passes, a feeling arises — who is watching this thought? Not the mind itself — because mind is nothing but the process of thought and feeling. The mind is just the traffic of thinking. Who is watching it? When you say, “Fear has arisen in me,” who are ‘you’? To whom has the thought of fear arisen? Who is the container? The thought of fear is the content — who is the container?
Consciousness (awareness) is like an empty paper. Mind is like a written, printed paper. Whatever exists as an object inside you, whatever you can see and observe, is the mind. The perceiver is not the mind, the observed is the mind.

So if you can simply go on observing, watching, witnessing without condemning, without in any way creating a conflict with the mind, without indulging it, without following it, without going against it, if you can simply be there indifferent to it, in that indifference self-inquiry happens; when the watcher arises, the witness is there, mind simply disappears.

Mind exists with your cooperation or your opposition. Both are ways of cooperating — opposition too! When you fight with the mind, you give energy to it. If you really fight you have accepted the mind, in your very fighting you have established the power of the mind over your being. So whether you cooperate or you oppose, in both cases the mind becomes stronger and stronger. Just watch. Just be a witness. And, by and by, you will see gaps arising. A thought passes, and another thought does not come immediately — there is an interval. In that interval is peace. In that interval is love. In that interval is all that you always seek — but never find. In that gap, you are no longer an ego. In that gap you are not defined, confined, imprisoned. In that gap you are vast, immense, huge! In that gap you are one with existence — the barrier does not exist. Your boundaries are not there any longer. You melt into existence and the existence melts in you. You start overlapping.

This happens if you go on watching without getting attached to these gaps either… because that is our nature, to get attached to these gaps. If you start yearning for these gaps… because they are tremendously beautiful, they are immensely blissful and it is natural to get attached to them, and desire arises to have more and more of these gaps — then you will miss them, then your watcher has disappeared. In that way those gaps will again disappear, and again the traffic of the mind will be there.

So the first thing is to become an indifferent watcher. And the second thing is to remember that when beautiful gaps arise, don’t get attached to them, don’t start asking for them, don’t start waiting for them to happen more often. If you can remember these two things — when beautiful gaps come, watch them too, and keep your indifference alive — then one day the traffic simply disappears with the road, they both disappear. And there is tremendous emptiness. That’s what Buddha calls ‘Nirvana’ — the mind has ceased. This is what I call suicide — but mind has not committed it. Mind cannot do it. You can help it to happen or you can hinder it; helping it to happen depends on you, not on your mind. Anything the mind does will always strengthen the mind. So self-inquiry is not really an effort of the mind. Real meditation is not effort at all.

Real self-inquiry (Nija Vicharana) is just allowing the mind to have its own way, and not interfere in any way whatsoever — just remain watchful, witnessing. It silences, by and by, it becomes still. One day it is gone. You are left alone. That aloneness is what your reality is. And reality is beginning less and endless. The mind has a beginning and an end, hence the mind and reality cannot meet. The mind cannot comprehend the eternal. Reality is simply the loss of ego. Destroy the ego by seeking its identity. Because the ego is no entity it will automatically vanish and reality will shine forth by itself. And in that aloneness nothing is excluded, remember it. In that aloneness everything is included — that aloneness is God. That purity, that innocence, uncorrupted by any thought, is what Self is.

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Ashvagosha - The View in Dzogchen

 View and Meditation of the Great Perfection
by the first Jamgon Kontrul Rinpoche


 Homage to the Guru, the teacher.

The View and Meditation of Dzogchen can be explained in many, many ways,
but simply sustaining the essence of present awareness includes them all.
Your mind won't be found elsewhere.
 It is the very nature of this moment-to-moment thinking.
 Regard nakedly the essence of this thinking and you find present awareness, right where you are.

Why chase after thoughts, which are superficial ripples of present awareness?
Rather look directly into the naked, empty nature of thoughts; 

then there is no duality, no observer, and nothing observed.
Simply rest in this transparent, nondual present awareness.
Make yourself at home in the natural state of pure presence, just being, not doing anything in particular.

Present awareness is empty, open, and luminous; not a concrete substance, yet not nothing. 

Empty, yet it is perfectly cognizant, lucid, aware.
As if magically, not by causing it to be aware, but innately aware, awareness continuously functions.
These two sides of present awareness or Rigpa-its emptiness and its cognizance (lucidity)-are inseparable.
Emptiness and luminosity (knowing) are inseparable.
They are formless, as if nothing whatsoever, ungraspable, unborn, undying; yet spacious, vivid, buoyant.
Nothing whatsoever, yet Emaho!, everything is magically experienced.
Simply recognize this.
Look into the magical mirror of mind and appreciate this infinite magical display.

With constant, vigilant mindfulness, sustain this recognition of empty, open, brilliant awareness.
Cultivate nothing else.
There is nothing else to do, or to undo.
Let it remain naturally.
Don't spoil it by manipulating, by controlling, by tampering with it, and worrying about whether you are right or wrong, or having a good meditation or a bad meditation.
Leave it as it is, and rest your weary heart and mind.

The ultimate luminosity of Dharmakaya, absolute truth, is nothing other than the very nature of this uncontrived, ordinary mind.
Don't look elsewhere for the Buddha.
It is nothing other than the nature of this present awareness.
This is the Buddha within.

There are innumerable Dharma teachings.
There are many antidotes to many different kinds of spiritual diseases.
There are many words in the Mahamudra and Dzogchen nondual teachings.
But the root, the heart of all practices is included here, 

in simply sustaining the luminous nature of this present awareness.
If you search elsewhere for something better, a Buddha superior to this present awareness, 

you are deluding yourself.
You are chained, entangled in the barbed wire of hope and fear.
So give it up!
Simply sustain present wakefulness, moment after moment.
Devotion, compassion, and perfecting virtue and wisdom are the most important supportive methods for completely fulfilling this naked, nondual teaching about present awareness, the innate Dharmakaya.

So always devote yourself to spiritual practice for the benefit of others and apply yourself in body, speech, and mind to what is wholesome and virtuous. 

Sarva mangalam.

May all beings be happy!

http://www.dzogchen.org/

Fred LaMotte - A Living Guru

In a living Guru
there is no "should,"
no rule or regulation
to disobey,
and no one to follow
down any path.

 
There is only melting.

Can the earth leave its orbit
around the sun?
So I cannot take my gaze
from your face.
Who would call this bondage?

The formless sky of love
has become a crown of thorns
and a garland of roses
while remaining the sky.
Invisible sap is crimson.
Emptiness feels like a baby's palm.

In You, in You.

Of course one could endure the Spring
without looking at a single flower,
then brag, "I have freed myself
from Beauty."

But I would rather drown
in the blossom of your eyes
because they drown in me.
We are dead bees in each other's
goblet of raindrops,
slaves of boundless sweetness.

I gladly wear the chains of my Beloved
that are made of pure light,
for She wears my body like a veil
around her breath.

If you do not understand this,
you have not breathed.

Make mischief, drop your burden.
Discipleship is for donkeys and ants.

The Guru is for those who leap
like dolphins in waves
of astonishment.

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http://yourradiance.blogspot.gr/ 

Mystic Meandering - Shadow Love

There are those who would try to sell you a pretense of love…
a “shadow love…”
There are "spiritual" Charlatans on every corner…

But there is something beyond love’s shadow –

 Beyond how *we* define “love”…

LOVE beyond “love”…

A Love deep within
that is beyond egoic conditioned love
and need…
It is expansive, open and receptive
to *all* that we are,
just because we are…

Therefore, do not aspire to love – but aspire to be Real,
to be True Hearted;
clear and transparent...

When love is just a covering,
an egoic pretense,
it dissipates.

Let this “shadow love”
dissipate
to reveal what’s beyond
the shadowy veil…

Don’t be fooled by the magician’s “love” -
behind the curtain…
conjuring up false love
luring you in…

It is only a shadow of the Real…

Don’t allow “love” to be a pawn,
manipulated by the fingers of illusion…

Let the shadow be revealed
and see that

the emperor has no clothes.

 

Don’t reach for love – out there - somewhere.
Go within…
Sink into the True Source of Love,
Pure Being,
until the Source of Love is experienced
 fully and completely.

Be real.
 Be authentic
in your loving…

Love from the Truth
of who you Really are…

Take the pedlars of “shadow love” down off their pedestals…
See them for what they are,

only a shadow…

Mystic Meandering
Meditative Writings
circa 2004

 

 

 

http://mysticmeandering.blogspot.gr/ 

Amata Natasha Goldie - The Birthing

The Earth’s heart wept,
And Time spoke not of lessons and experiences

All was quiet

And within the quivering of all souls,
Beauty birthed

And all around, a magical sound,
A symphony of unity and oneness

All hearts opened,
The chorus sang out

As Peace held hands with Love,
And, in the blinking of all eyes,

A new consciousness, was born

Ashram of the Ethers 

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Love Consciousness 

Miyamoto Musashi - Spirit of the Void

art Yayoi Kusama 

What is called the spirit of the void is where there is nothing. It is not included in man’s knowledge. Of course the void is nothingness. By knowing things that exist, you can know that which does not exist. That is the void.

People in this world look at things mistakenly, and think that what they do not understand must be the void. This is not the true void. It is bewilderment…

Polish the twofold spirit heart and mind, and sharpen the twofold perception and sight. When your spirit is not in the least clouded, 
when the clouds of bewilderment clear away, 

there is the true void…

In the void is virtue, and no evil. Wisdom has existence, principle has existence, the Way has existence, spirit is nothingness.

Meister Eckhart - The knower and the known are one.

art Maya Renée

The knower and the known are one.

Simple people imagine that they should see God, as if He stood there and they here.
This is not so.

God and I, we are one in knowledge.

Saint Clare of Assisi - Μirror of Εternity

Place your mind before the mirror of eternity,
place your soul in the brightness of His glory,
place your heart in the image of the divine essence
and transform yourself by contemplation
utterly into the image of His divinity,
that you too may feel what His friends feel as they taste
the hidden sweetness that God himself has set aside
from the beginning for those who love Him.

Casting aside all things in this false and troubled world
that ensnare those who love them blindly,
give all your love to Him who gave Himself in all
for you to love:
Whose beauty the sun and moon admire, and whose gifts
are abundant and precious and grand without end.

The Voice of Babaji - Divine

I am Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute. I am That by very nature. I cannot be anything else but That, as I am That alone without a beginning and an end. It is My real nature. I am the Absolute & Supreme Self, both within & without the finitude. I am Truth, eternal & everlasting. I am the only One, all in Myself. None exists save I, in & through all that exist. I am ever All Existence itself. I am the changeless One in the midst of all changes. I am the Formless in all forms. Change is linked up with form, and form is labeled with change. But I am beyond the two. I am not susceptible to all the ills of the flesh that exist crawling under the feet of form & change. I am the monistic unity, here, there & everywhere & at all times- nay for all times. Where is happiness, except in perfect realization of the One without second? I feel I am happiness itself. All Bliss I am. All joy I am. It is only My Bliss that is being felt and enjoyed by every one in a dimmer or brighter magnitude, consciously or unconsciously. All Bliss is Infinity and Infinity alone is all Bliss, I am, indeed, Brahman, the basic priciple, from which the whole universe seems to have come. I am the same in each & everything. I am all peace and all calm within myself. I am of the nature of Being, Brightness & Bliss Absolute. There is not even an iota of doubt about this. This is My eternal truth. I am the One monistic permanent entity in the whole world, which is made up of broken fragments of delusion, of fickle & fleeting modifications and of the glitter of fool's gold. I seat Myself in the very heart of delusion undeluded. I am ever steady & steadfast in all its trumblings & stumblings. I am always firm in all its fleetings. I am the One eternal Truth, in all falsehood. I am pure Bliss of Perfect Freedom. I am the simple life of Eternity. I am the one Light of everlasting Truth. I am the virgin love of Immortality. I am the essence of all-pervading Infinity, I am the sole breath of all Nature. I am Truth, Freedom, Life, Light & Love. I am Eternity, Immortality & Infinity. I am One without a Second, the one in All and the All in all. I am the Supreme wisdom unconcerned with all the trade that Jiva carries on with the Jagat. I am the subtlest of the subtle, an embodiment of indivisibility Itself. Eternal knower am I of the triplet, namely subject, object and their relation, and also I am their fundamental background on which they express themselves on the relative plane and dissolve themselves in the absolute plane. I shine in the sun and the moon and the stars and the whole universe. I am the sun of suns, shining in the sun above. I am the crystal light in the sun and virgin purity in the moon. I am the twinkling spark in the star and the sustaining Principle in the universe. I shine, the sun shines. The sun warmly whispers unto Me of My eternal Presence in it. I am really all Myself in everything - the sun, the moon, the star and the whole cosmos. I am Atman without a form, incapable of division and of everlasting Bliss. I am ever immaculate. I am the all-pervading One, unlimited by time, unbounded by space, pure & holy by my own nature. I am infinite and an abode of immortal knowledge and perfect Freedom. I am the Absolute, the Eternal Bliss, pervading everywhere, within & without. I am the only One, pure, unchangeable & uniform essence or entity, birthless & deathless. I am the everlasting principle of dynamic existence beyond the reach of imagination, destitute of all duality & unity. I am neither inaccessible nor accessible to knowledge, neither bound nor free and neither a doer nor an enjoyer. I am the One & the All and I am ever All Myself. None else exists. I am He, the monistic uncontradictable, attributeless Bliss. I am beyond concentration, meditation, Yoga and all other practices, I am indivisible and of the nature of self-resplendent consciousness. I am the consciousness of the Reality which does not admit of differentiation. I alone am all-inclusive, constitute the ultimate goal and self consciousness, pure & simple. I am absolutely non-dual in My nature. I am, indeed, Brahman, without difference, without change and of the nature of Reality, Knowledge & Bliss. I am the living ocean of ecstasy that rages wild and surges and storms and levels down the earth & heavens. I send such continuous wave after wave of inarticulate ecstasy into the world drowning deep and scattering all its thoughts & cares. I beat in every beast. see in every eye, throb in every pulse, smile in every flower, shine in the lightening and roar in the thunder. I flutter in the leaves, I hiss in the winds and I roll in the surging seas. I am the Wisdom of the wise, the Strength of the strong and the Heroism of the heroic. I am the very life of infinity both within & without. i am the One in the all and the All in One. I am the Impersonal Personality of the whole universe. What can make Me afraid? I care not for the nature's laws. Death is a joke to me and I am the death of death. I am the Infinite, The Eternal and the Immortal Self. Me, no fire can burn, no water melt, no air dry and no sword pierce. I am that Supreme Self before whose magnitude the suns and moons and all their systems appear, as insignificant specks in the ocean and before whose glory space melts away into nothingness. Time vanishes into non-existence and causation dwindles into emptiness. Ranging beyond names & forms, passing free into woods & forests, mountains & rivers, into day & night, clouds & stars, passing free into men & women, animals & angels, as the self of each and all, am I. Truth flows from Me, just as light radiates from the sun and fragrance emanates from a flower. Sometimes it rushes and envelopes all rumbling & thundering, shaking and waking the world into true import of life. I fill and thrill the whole world with this one Truth of Freedom, My Godhead. I am the Transcendental Bliss, the Absolute Intelligence, the Supreme synthesis of Consciousness that shines in the shrine of every heart. I am the divine inner harmony of the universe in the unruffled stillness of the soul. I am the one music of all life in the deepest depths. I am the immutable & indescribable Atman, the dynamic principle of Existence and the infinite ocean of everlasting glee. In my presence, all hells & heavens are effaced into shadowy nothingness and the whole universe is a mere bubble, ever ready to burst. Night & day get themselves dissolved, pairs of opposites vanish, bondage of matter is broken, name & form evaporate and the whole cosmos melts like a dream and I am Myself the eternal and the all-abiding Reality, the glorious, majestic, infinite & independent Self. I am the chief and unshaken center of gravity making of this whole universe, as it is, a zero. And I bathe the world in Nectar of everlasting Bliss flooding forth from within and thus sweep it off its meum and tuum.

- From Book " The Voice of Babaji : a trilogy on Kriya Yoga "

source text Realized One

Helene Averous - Disappear In You

O my Lord,



Please, pray for me



There is nothing I can do



Better than You





In that feeling of not knowing,



I'm still searching for a being



Who could be You





I see nowhere



I see nobody



Who could be You



Who could be Me


O My Lord,



Please help me,



To fully disappear



In You

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