David Carse - No one here at all

The message of the sutras and the shamans is the same:
the person of understanding is the one who dies before she dies,
who leaves no footprints, who travels no path,
because she knows that as a person, as an entity, she is not.
But who can do this, what self can cease to be?

None, as Wei Wu Wei would say, because none is: it can only happen.
Then there is no one to know but only the knowing,
and all this world is as in a dream or a vision;
only Brilliance beyond light, Love beyond love,
clear knowing pure beauty streaming through these transparent forms
and no one here at all.

 

You can listen selected passages from the audio book "Perfect brillant stillness"

HERE

Or/and

Read as PDF

HERE 

 

 

 

Rabindranath Tagore - It is ever He

"He it is, the innermost one,
who awakens my being with His deep hidden touches.
He it is who puts His enchantment upon these eyes
and joyfully plays on the chords of my heart in varied cadence of pleasure and pain.
He it is who weaves the web of this maya
in evanescent hues of gold and silver, blue and green,
and lets peep out through folds His feet,
at whose touch I forget myself.
Days come and ages pass,
and it is ever He who moves my heart in many a name,
in many a guise, in many a rapture of joy and of sorrow."

 

 

 

l

 Thanks to Carol

 

The Silence of Ramana Maharshi

 On a Shivaratri day, after dinner, 

Bhagavan was reclining on the sofa surrounded by many devotees. 

A Sadhu suggested that, since this was a most auspicious night, 

the meaning of the verse in praise of Dakshinamurti should be made clear. 

Bhagavan gave his approval and all were eagerly waiting for him to say something. 

He simply sat, gazing at us. 

We were gradually absorbed in ever deepening silence, 

which was not disturbed by the clock striking the hour, every hour, until 4 a.m. 

None moved or talked. 

Time and space ceased to exist. 

Bhagavan’s grace kept us at peace and silence for seven hours.
In this silence, Bhagavan taught us the Ultimate, like Dakshinamurti. 

At the stroke of four Bhagavan asked us whether we had understood 

the meaning of the silent teaching. 

Like waves on the infinite ocean of bliss, we fell at Bhagavan’s feet.

    ~ T. K. Sundaresa Iyer, Ramana Smrti Souvenir

T. K. Sundaresa Iyer at the center

source text 

 

Jed McKenna - Spiritual Enlightenment the damnedest thing

 Spiritual  enlightenment  sits  next  to  an empty milk  carton 
on  an orange lunch tray  in a gradeschool cafeteria.
It's lying  in  the grass  in a ditch beside a rusting  hubcap. 
It's  on the button holding  closed the left  cuff of a somewhat important  man's  shirt.
 
Enlightenment  can be found  next  to the elevator on the fourth level  of the airport parking  garage. 

You can ask  your dog  for it,  but  he may  not give  it  to you.

Look for  it  next  to the pen  in the pocket of  the checkout girl's  red vest, But  only  on  Wednesdays.

Enlightenment  is in  the trunk,  behind the  jack. 
You  can hear  it  in  the squeak of a hinge at  the  local  library. 
It's  in the  breeze blowing  unheard  through  an  unseen  tree. 
It's  in the  space after the exhale and  before the  inhale. 

You can find enlightenment  in  church,  in  that  scratch  on the back of the pew  in  front  of you.
 
You can find it  in the desert, just  before the wind picks  up again.

Enlightenment  is  nothing. 
Delusion  is  the greatest  wonder. 

Enlightenment  was  in your coffee cup before you poured in the coffee.
Now it's  in your coffee cup.
Two point two billion years before your coffee cup was created, Enlightenment  was  in your coffee cup.
An hour and fifteen minutes after time  swallows the  universe,  Enlightenment will be  in  your coffee cup
.
You've always  known  where  it  is  because it's exactly  where you left  it. 
How can you  not return to a place you  never left?
You  are  dreaming  that  you  are  unenlightened. 
You are  dreaming that  you are  awake.

The question  is:  Why? 
The answer is:  Why  not? 

PDF HERE

  

Who is Jed McKenna ?

 

Bernadette Roberts - Experiencing the divine

art Yongsung Kim

 One possible way of envisioning the human passage is the following. We think of ourselves as originally emerging from the unknown, from darkness, nothingness or non-existence into the light of consciousness. But as consciousness develops we discover the increasing ability to see in the dark, see into the nothingness or mystery within ourselves and eventually realize that this darkness and nothingness is the divine from which we emerged and with which we are one. Thus we discover that our original darkness IS true light. Midway in this passage, divine light (darkness or unknowing) and the light of consciousness are in balance, with neither outshining the other. But as we move beyond this mid-point, divine light begins to outshine the light of consciousness until, in the end, the light of consciousness goes out and only divine light remains. From this vantage point we look back on the passage and see that although consciousness was the veil that dimmed the light, this dimming was necessary in order to make the human dimension possible. But if consciousness makes human existence possible, it is also not separate from the divine, nor does it completely hide it; on the contrary, consciousness or self is man’s faculty or medium for experiencing the divine — so long as it remains, that is [this is key]. Our passage through consciousness is the gradual return to the divine; we leave the divine unknowingly and in darkness, but we return knowingly and in light.

source 

 

The Silence of Meher baba

    On 10th July, 1925, Baba ceased speaking. He told his disciples that he would be silent for one year, but the year stretched to the rest of his earth time with us — forty-four years.

 

I am the Ocean of Silence, but I am never silent.

    I am eternally speaking in what you say to one another; and the voice that you hear deep within your souls is my voice inspiring and guiding you.

    God has been everlasting working in silence, unobserved, unheard except by those who experience that infinite Silence.

    If my silence does not speak to you, of what use would it be if I spoke in the language of your minds? When my speaking will be heard universally, God will make me speak. But that speaking will not be speeches of words, but the Word of words which will irresistibly impart to those who are ready the ‘I am God’ (Anal Haq or Aham Brahma-Asmi) state.

    Listening to music makes me happy, for it reminds me again that the universe and all its forms came out of my Original Song — which was the Voice of Silence.

    When God makes me sing this Song again, those who love me will be lost in the Song and will see me as the real Self in everyone.

    I am eternally talking in your talk and I am bored with the talk, for it is all idle when it is not lived. I will speak when I feel like saying the Word which was spoken in the Beginningless Beginning — for that is the only Word worth speaking. Words are the prose of the world, and the world is my burden; my language is the poetry of my creative Word, and when I speak that Word it will touch the hearts of all men and its divine touch will make them feel the oneness of all. Then separateness will dissolve and hatred and jealousy and greed will melt away. Diversity will still be — for your life in illusion requires its experience, but behind and beneath and through all the diversity will be the feeling and knowledge of oneness; and the so-called sinner will feel that he one day will be a saint, and the saint will know that God is in the sinner as much as in himself.

    Ages and ages ago I performed the grand miracle of bringing the whole of this illusory creation out of myself. I will perform another such miracle when I break my silence. It will be the first and the last in my present incarnation. I will not raise the dead, but make those who live for the world dead to it. I will not give sight to the blind, but make those who see the world as reality blind to it so that they shall see me as I am.

    My whole mission is to utter this Word of Truth which will pierce the mind of man and go straight to his heart. That will be my moment of fulfilment — and the opening of the flood-gate of Grace will be the opening up of new ways to eternity.

    With the dawn of the realization of the unity of all life, hatred and dissension will cease. To love will be natural and so it will be easy for men to understand one another, and they will enjoy a brotherhood in the realization of the oneness of God.

    When I break my Silence, which must be soon, all who have known me, or who know me in their hearts in some degree will see me: some a glimpse, some a little more and some still more. It will be as when an electric power-house is switched on: whatever bulbs are connected to it will be lit: small bulbs will give a dim light, big bulbs a bright light; but from bulbs that are fused there will not be any light.

    I have come not to teach but to awaken. From the beginning of man-time I have laid down principles and given precepts for men’s well-being, but they have made a mockery of my teaching. Instead of practising the compassion I taught, men have waged wars in my name; instead of living the humility, purity and truth of my words they have given way to hatred, greed and violence.

    Because men in the past have been deaf to the principles and precepts given them, this time I am silent. You have asked for, and been given, enough words — it is now time to live them. To get nearer to God you have to get further and further from ‘I,’ ‘my,’ ‘Me’ and ‘mine.’ You do not have to renounce anything but your own self. It is just as simple and as impossible as that. But it is possible by my Grace. And I have come to release that Grace.

    I am the divine Beloved who loves you more than you can ever love yourself. When I release the flood of Truth — which is what I have come to do — men’s daily lives will be the living precepts, and the words I have not spoken will come to life in them.

    The time of Grace is so near that the only thing that can count now is love.

 SOURCE

 

Balthazar - The Madman

by Kahlil Gibran First Illustration from The madman, his parables and poems

And when I reached the market place, a youth standing on a house-top cried, “He is a madman.” I looked up to behold him; the sun kissed my own naked face for the first time. For the first time the sun kissed my own naked face and my soul was inflamed with love for the sun, and I wanted my masks no more.  And as if in a trance I cried, “Blessed, blessed are the thieves who stole my masks.”
Thus I became a madman.

– Khalil Gibran

by Kahlil Gibran Second Illustration

In an insane world you must be mad to be sane.

In an upside down world true sanity appears as strange and dangerous.

Things are so backwards that it seems impossible to be happy, that it is seen as dangerous to love, that it is seen as madness to be honest and authentic.
In this absurd world the only thing that makes any sense is to be radically authentic to ones self – even if it is the opposite of society

A person needs to discover their own innate insanity.
Madness, a divine madness that knows nothing of the conditioned and calculating head.  That mind which is borrowed from and implanted by society.

 The Madman

The one who unquestioningly follows their heart is a madman.
The one who unfailing listens to the soul and heeds it’s urgings is the madman.

The madman is dangerous – not that he will physically hurt you, but he will shatter your illusions. He is unpredictable, wild, and untamed.
You will feel uneasy around him because he does not prop up your house of lies.

She cannot be contained or influenced. You cannot bribe her with money or status. You cannot control her through fear or desire.

The madman loves his madness, he does not reject it. For he knows that his madness is his treasure, is his very life-force itself.

He sees animals and small children in their natural madness and knows his madness to be alike there’s, but more – more mature, more balanced, more conscious. And also sly, for he can conceal his madness if necessary. Only the twinkle in his eye betrays the chaotic kosmos within.

The madman is a drunkard, and a hopeless lover
She owns nothing, wants nothing, lacks nothing.

He is mad precisely because he is not mad.
She is utterly natural, spontaneous, unburdened, innocent.

The mind is insane. Society is insane. And the mind is societies conditioning in you.

“Normal” is to be profoundly inwardly sick. Beneath nearly everyone’s smiley mask is a mountain of pain, fear, sorrow, anger, anxiety, neuroticism, and insanity. Everyone you see is a dormant walking volcano that only doesn’t erupt because they have learned to suppress their inner energies.

And psychologists beleive themselves to be the caretakers of the inmates, when they are actually the most serious cases!

It is the mind which is truly insane – the mind acting without the lead of the heart and soul.

So you take up the title of a “madman” to console the sane ones. So that they wont be too upset and bothered by you.
When you are in an insane asylum, what else can you do but tell the inmates not to worry?   That “I am insane, don’t be upset by me. Don’t take me seriously.”

You have to be sly. Even though you know that it is really they who are mad and you who are sane.  That is the only way to get out of the madhouse without being stoned…
or crucified.

The freedom of madness

A man needs a healthy dose of madness, else he will never do anything great, anything new, anything real.
If you want to be truly alive and truly free you must be mad.

It is the mad ones who find the treasure.
It is only the mad ones who are daring enough to break free.
It is the mad ones who have all the fun.

You must be utterly mad
Mad to dance, laugh, and cry
Mad to live and mad to die

Mad to be oneself,
And mad enough to lose oneself.

Mad enough to risk everything for freedom, for truth, for the heart, for love.
Mad enough to lose all respectability if it means staying true to life and to oneself.
Mad enough to go to the depths of Hell and find therein Heaven.
Mad enough to go into insanity if need be to discover true sanity.

Be totally MAD!
Let people feel that you are dangerous, crazy, and weird. Let them fear you and admire you even as they fear you.
You madness will protect you from being chained and also from the chains of being understood.
Let them be afraid to get too close – lest their excuses and illusions are destroyed by your fire.
Lest the fire spreads to them and they catch your madness also.

Revel in your madness
Run naked through the streets shouting wildy
Learn to love your madness, your primordial chaos.
Dare to be ecstatic, dare to be untamed.

Go crazy, and not just a little. Go all the way.
Be The Madman 

https://sethbalthazar.com/

 

Sailor Bob Adamson - Questions for contemplation

Questions for contemplation 

    Did you come to learn or get something here? Something new? Something you don’t have or are not yet? It can be very subtle!
    If it is sat-chit-ananda as Hinduism calls it – existence (being), consciousness (knowing), bliss (loving to be or stillness) then:

    Can you deny your being? (Try not to be!);
    Are you unaware (unconscious)?;
    Would you rather be dead?
    Doesn’t it mean that YOU ARE THAT (sat-chit-ananda) already?

    If is true what they say in the great mantra (Mahavakya) – I Am That – wouldn’t it be essential to look what the word ‘THAT’ represents?

    What is THAT in our language?
    What is not THAT?

    What is the word after all?

    What is the word “I” or “ME”?
    Where you born with any words?
    How were they acquired?

    If Buddhism points to it as ‘non-conceptual, ever fresh presence awareness and nothing else (just this) – are you not aware of this presence right now?

    What else do you expect if they say ‘just this, nothing else’?

    In Christianity we have Omnipresence, Omnipotence, Omniscience, what does it mean?

    Isn’t ‘Omnipotence’ the TOTAL power? Is there any room for Higher Power, power of thought or entity doing something?
    Is it any other power running the universe or your body?
    Are you doing (do you have power to do) digestion or replacing cells in the body?
    Are you doing seeing or thinking (how?)?
    Isn’t ‘Omnipresence’ the TOTAL presence? Can ‘you’ be separated or excluded?
    Isn’t ‘Omniscience’ the TOTAL knowing?

    Is belief ever the actual? (example: Thought of lust is a sin, Earth is flat, Santa Claus is real…) Is that true when investigated?
    When we seek to become whole and complete – we want liberation – who is that for? Who is the “we”? Is there a personal self?
    Is the Person ever a reality? Where did that word ‘Person’ come from? Doesn’t it mean THE MASK in Latin? The Mask of a conceptual image?
    Isn’t the conceptual image based in believed past? Isn’t it dead? Where is the freshness and newness in it?
    Relating to the false image, what are you going to liberate yourself from?

    What realisation and for who?

    Do you still believe you can find the answer in the mind?

    Do you think you can get peace of mind?
    What is the nature of mind? How does it vibrate into interrelated opposites? Can it work in any other way?
    What is there when vibration ceases for a moment or is not attended to?
    If there was an answer in thought, how long would that be valid for? And why hasn’t anybody found it there yet?

    Is the word – the actual? Can the word water – make you wet; or word fire – burn?

    Is it any different with the rest of the words in the manifestation? Are they the real things?
    Isn’t it dream-like illusion sustained by the energy of belief (attention)?

    Is there anything permanent or static in the manifestation? Anything solid?

    Do you have the same body you were born with?
    Where is that original cell, sperm and ovum dividing into a foetus – right now?
    Did it start then or much earlier, when your parents where eating food and breathing prana which enabled these cells to form?

    What is the body anyway? What is it made of?

    Is any of the elements (air, matter (earth), fire (temperature), water, space separate from the totality?
    Can you separate yourself from (remove) water (body is mostly water!), air, heat or space?
    Can you function if you stop replenishing them from the environment?

    Isn’t the body just a vibrating pattern of energy? When you break it to elements or further to subatomic particles or waves or energy – isn’t it as they say the no-thing? Isn’t it the same with every form in this manifestation made of phenomena?
    What is phenomena, how does the dictionary explains it? Isn’t it that, which appears to be?
    So are you this body?

    Don’t you call it my body just like my coat or my car?
    Could the body be a kind of coat or car?
    Doesn’t language suggest it when you say you are an owner of the body or coat or car?
    Who is that owner?

    Are you this mind?

    Don’t you say my mind just the same way?
    Can you show me your mind?
    Is it anything else other than thought?
    What is thought? Isn’t it a subtle sound or vibration of energy?

    How did it all start after the baby was born?

    What can you remember without words, before reasoning and storing memory was possible?
    How did you learn you are a person, who told you and what did they say you were?
    What did you add to it, what are you relating to as “me” right now?
    Isn’t it all relating to the past events? How else would you know what you like or dislike?
    Isn’t this reference point a dualism?
    Can there be a duality in non-duality?

    If ego is a problem, can you get rid of it? Who would be trying to remove it if not ego itself?
    Is there such a thing as an ego?
    In relating to past image of what is good or bad; and wanting to keep the good and push away the bad – aren’t we in conflict with what is right now? Isn’t it RESISTANCE?

    Doesn’t conflict make you anxious, depressed, uneasy?
    Isn’t un-easiness a dis-ease?
    Isn’t all the psychological suffering a conflict or dis-ease?
    What if you don’t relate it to a reference point (me)? Where does it go?

    How about Nature? Does it relate anything to anything? Doesn’t it also vibrate in opposites, day/night, summer/winter – without any conflict? Does silence fight the sound?

25 Are you anything other than Nature?

    How to do the investigation? Look: Are you seeing right now?

    Did you decide to start it in the morning? Or was it there, already available as the rest of functioning?
    Isn’t it the same seeing with you right now? Content is different, but has the seeing capacity change?
    Isn’t it the same with hearing?
    Does my eye tell me “I see”? Does it say “Look at this, look at that”?
    Isn’t the thought “I see” merely a translation of the mind creating a subject-object split in plain singular seeing?
    Can that thought “I see” actually see? Close your eyes and check!
    If eye is only an instrument and thought only translation – WHAT IS SEEING?
    Same way – does the thought “I hear” – actually hear?
    Is the thought “I’m aware” – your awareness? I choose – the choice maker?
    Can you choose thoughts? Would you ever have unhappy thoughts if you could choose them?

    How many thoughts can a CORPSE have? How much can it see or hear?
    How much information can you get out of the computer if the power is not ON?
    How long are you searching? Could it be that you are seeking in the wrong place?
    Do you think you can find it in future? Become something? Is becoming – being? If it is to be found in time, can you trust it? If it has a beginning, wouldn’t it be just passing phenomena, experience? Is that what you want? Pleasure? Bliss?
    Isn’t TIME the mind? Is there a past or future or time if you don’t think about it?
    Who are you if you don’t think about it? Who are you without your past? Would the conceptual answer ever satisfy you? For how long?
    What is wrong with right now if you don’t think about it?

 

https://www.sailorbobadamson.com/