Alan Watts - Bored or Distracted?

pic Martin Stranka

“As it is, we are merely bolting our lives—gulping down undigested experiences as fast as we can stuff them in—because awareness of our own existence is so superficial and so narrow that nothing seems to us more boring than simple being. 

If I ask you what you did, saw, heard, smelled, touched and tasted yesterday, I am likely to get nothing more than the thin, sketchy outline of the few things that you noticed, and of those only what you thought worth remembering.

Is it surprising that an existence so experienced seems so empty and bare that its hunger for an infinite future is insatiable?

But suppose you could answer, “It would take me forever to tell you, and I am much too interested in what’s happening now.”

How is it possible that a being with such sensitive jewels as the eyes, such enchanted musical instruments as the ears, and such a fabulous arabesque of nerves as the brain can experience itself as anything less than a god? And, when you consider that this incalculably subtle organism is inseparable from the still more marvelous patterns of its environment—from the minutest electrical designs to the whole company of the galaxies—how is it conceivable that this incarnation of all eternity can be bored with being?”

~ Alan Watts, The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are

 

Charlie Hayes - Where does Presence begin?

Where does Presence begin?

Have you ever noticed that everything that appears and disappears arises Presently?

Have not you ever noticed that it is always now now now?
Have you ever been out of the now in actual experience rather than in concept?

If you think you have been out of the now is not that thinking happening now?
There is something changeless, is not there? Does the now ever change? Where does now began?

Just simply notice where does presence began? Where does it end? Just noticed this right now.
When else could you notice it? The Unchanging now is ever present and always completely fresh. Is it not?

Enlightenment is simply noticing that you are always in this presence,
and that this presence has never changed one iota. Super simple. Got it?

So keep it simple seeker! Kiss! Can you really argue your way out of now?
Katie really dispute that it is always now? This simple presence, suffused with awareness, is your true nature.
Even if you argue against it, that does not change it. Super simple. Got it?

I could go on and on with this, but I trust you got the point. Actually, the pointer.
What we’re pointing to is what is always so. As the sage Lao Tzu put it, to know the always so is to be illumined.
Does awareness ever change? Where is awareness began?
Can you find a beginning or an end to awareness? So simple.

You are that!

http://everythingisthis.blogspot.gr/ 

 

Jinendra Swami - The Sound of Silence

Have you ever listened to
The Sound of Silence within you?

The Silence arises
    from the void of the 'Heart'
This void is
   the throne  of your 'Atman'

Do you know
What matters to the  'Heart'
...  ...  ...    matters  'You'?

But what is this  'Heart'?
Who is this 'You' ?

The Body    ...   ...  is not You
The  Mind  ...   ...  is not You
The  Intellect   ...   is not You
Nor, the Emotion and Feeling is  You
But do you  'Know'
What's in the HEART  is  YOU ?

It is highly fashionable
 ... ...    to be 'Rational'
But, can you find 
  the ME in Rational?  


The words have their own consciousness
Let the alphabets in the words speak to you
Be  ' E_M_O_T_I_O_N_A_L '
...   ...   and  Un-Scramble
...    ...  ...   the Cosmic Code 

Let-go ... ...  your-self ...  ...  in spiral
... ...  to experience ... ... a Revelation
There is ....ME
There is ....MOTION 
There is ....NO-TIME
There is ....only you.....ALONE

ME is Awareness
MOTION is  creativity of Life
NO-TIME is eternal Timelessness
ALONE is the Self - the Witnesser

When the Heart goes
....... tick, tick,   ... tick
The intellect goes
...  ... one , two , three 
Can't  you  SEE ?
 ... ... that the ...   ...  1 , 2 , 3
   is simply the reverberation
   of  the ... tick , tick... , tick 

The Rational is just 1 , 2 , 3
Go beyond   ...   ...  this 1 , 2 , 3
....  to the Source of  the
....    ...  TICK , TICK,  ...  TICK
For in this  ' T_I_C_K '
You'll experience . ..'IT '  
...   ...   ...  Listen to  'IT '
...  ...  ...  ...  Be with 'IT '
...   ...   ...   Merge with 'IT '
This merging is Meditation
This merging is Real 'Bhakti'

Contemplate ... deeeeeeeply 
   on the  void of the  'HEART '
It is NOT
  the ordinary organ-heart
It is
  the throne of your 'Atman'

You'll  'KNOW '
What the  'HE-ART'  is
When you experience in it
  the truth that is  'HE'

Listen to your  'HE_AR_T'
'HE' calls  HEAR, HEAR
Come silently   ... Come quietly
...   ...   a little closer
...   ...  ...   just a little more
NOW, open  your  'H_EAR_T'
  and discover the inner 'EAR'
It is through this inner 'EAR'
That  you can  'HEAR'
... ...  Loud ...   and clear ... ....
...  'SOHAM, SOHAM, ... SOHAM'

This Soham is
The sound of silence within you

IT beckons you
   to return to your-Self  
'Soham' brings you back
To the void of  your  'Heart'
...   ...  the throne  of  'Atman'

You too can discover
  the source of your I
Search for, who am I ?
Abide in it
  and be an Enlightened being
Now you 'understand'
Now you 'know'
What matters to the 'Heart'
 ...   ...   matters  'You'

You can 'know' a great deal
If you know 'how to Read'
Do you really know
  what the word  'understand'  means?
Or for that matter
  what the word  'know' means ?
And you still think you can arrive
  at the Abstract meaning
  that hide behind the words you Read ?

Be aware and perceive rightly
Then the words come alive and become meaningful
If not, they are like writings on water
Soon to disappear into meaninglessness!!

Jinendra

Taya Malakian - Sky Dancer

art Rassouli

 She who is all of space,
dances through me.
I have let myself become
as open to the air
as a tattered prayer flag
so that she can move in me
without impediments.
The winds are roused
as I write this,
confirming this great
Wisdom Being’s
desire to dance through
the curtain of illusion
and free us from our fears.
With the biggest love in her
vast heart
she tears through each of
us in an instant
what takes the winds
years to destroy.

~~~

 -Taya from The Forgotten Love: Poems of Love and Longing

 http://www.tiffanaya.com/

Mooji - Reflect upon this

You are One.
You are the singular being.
And, therefore, you cannot see you.
What you can see are only the projections that appear in your mind
—and some of those projections you take to be yourself.

While growing up we try out being all sorts of things,
so many different versions of ourselves
and all of these garments of identity have left
because none of them was you.

But you cannot leave you, even if you think you can and have.
You can leave the idea you have of you,
but your Self, you can never NOT be.
You may dream you are something or someone else,
you can momentarily appear to be something you are not,
but you cannot un-be what you are.

And you are the one watching all of these dreams and appearances.
The amount of interest or no-interest will determine
the impact your seeing will have on you, if any impact at all.
And if your seeing has a tremendous impact on you,
that ‘you’ is still not the ultimate Truth—not your essential Being.

Contemplate this. Reflect upon this until you meet your heart’s joy.

https://mooji.org/

 

Lal Ded - The Temple is but stone

“The idol is but stone
The Temple is but stone,
From top to bottom, all is but stone
Whom will you worship, O stubborn Pandit?”


“It covers your shame,
Saves you from cold,
Its food and drink, mere water and grass
Who counselled you, O Brahmin,
To slaughter a living sheep as a sacrifice
Unto a lifeless stone?”


“O fool, right action does not lie
In fasting and other ceremonial rites
O fool right action does not lie
In providing for bodily comfort and ease
In contemplation of the self alone is right action and right council for you."


“The pilgrim sanyasin goes from shrine to shrine,
Seeking to meet Him
Who abides within herself.
Knowing the truth, O soul, be not misled;
It is distance that makes the turf look green”


“Some leave their home, some the hermitage
But the restless mind knows no rest.
Then watch your breath day and night,
And stay where you are”


“I have worn out my plate and tongue reading the holy books,
But I have not learnt the practices that would please my lord.
I have worn thin fingers and thumb telling my rosary beads,
But I have not been able to dispel duality from my mind.”


“The thoughtless read the holy books
As parrots in their cages recite “Ram, Ram”
Their reading is like churning water,
Fruitless effort, ridiculous conceit.”

 

 

 Plenty more on  Lalleshwari (1320-1392)

 HERE 

Gateless Gatecrashers - Ilona Ciunaite & Elena Nezhinsky

Ready, vigilant and alive, you are there—at the Gate.

Then comes the guide who had crossed before. She takes your hand
or  slaps  your  face,  depending  on  what  you  need,  and  guides  you
through the Gate.

You  turn  back,  and  see  that  there  is  no  Gate,  there  is  no  crossing,
there is no you.

And there never was.

ARE YOU READY?

 Crossing the Gateless Gate—Are You Ready?

by Elena Nezhinsky

When I was at The Gate, I had no patience left for any more search.

I was burning for truth.

That night somebody guided me to see that for all this time, for years
and  years,  who  was  searching  for  whatever  goal,  holding  whatever  intention, was an imaginary self.
Years in silent retreats, sitting day after day, staring inside, purifying the mind.
Needed at the time, but not anymore.

The  search  that  drove  half  of  my  life  was  suddenly  suffocating  me.
 I was  ready  to  cross,  to  step  through,  but  I  didn’t  know  where  this path  led. 
In  various  spiritual  books  I  read  about  some  kind  of  veil of  illusion  and  The  Gateless  Gate. 
I  heard  this  koan  many  times—had  no  idea  what  it  meant—
until  I  felt  like  I  was  standing  there—at The Gate.

You feel it in your bones—standing there with your entire being.

Something really powerful is going on—not even sure what—like burning from inside out with a wish for Truth.
It feels ready. This is the time.
I must cross. I must rip off this illusion.
What the illusion is, not even sure  yet,  just  intellectually  maybe,  if  you  have  read  or  heard  about  it before.
But there is a strong feeling, as if you are about to step and fall into an abyss—the abyss of the unknown.

What  was  before  was  thoroughly  explored. 
It  may  have  been  comfortable, good, great, happy, not so good,
disappointing, boring, painful—anything—but at least it’s familiar.

Fear comes, in some cases even terror.

It feels that death is here—the death of the old life.
The death of the illusion.

Hesitation comes.

Then the decision: turn back to the familiar or forward into the unknown?

The decision comes.

Ready, vigilant and alive, you are there—at the Gate.

Then comes the guide who had crossed before. She takes your hand or
slaps your face, depending on what you need, and guides you through the Gate.

You turn back, and see that there is no Gate, there is no crossing,
there is no you.

And there never was.

ARE YOU READY?

 continue reading:

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http://liberationunleashed.com/