Paramahansa Yogananda

 When the mind is calm, how quickly, how smoothly, how beautifully you will perceive everything.

Alan Watts

 

“We are living in a culture entirely hypnotized by the illusion of time, in which the so-called present moment is felt as nothing but an infinitesimal hairline between an all-powerfully causative past and an absorbingly important future. We have no present. Our consciousness is almost completely preoccupied with memory and expectation. We do not realize that there never was, is, nor will be any other experience than present experience. We are therefore out of touch with reality. We confuse the world as talked about, described, and measured with the world which actually is. We are sick with a fascination for the useful tools of names and numbers, of symbols, signs, conceptions and ideas.”

Brihadaranyaka Upanishad

"All the joys of the entire cosmos put together would be only a small drop of the bliss of the Supreme Being. Whatever little satisfaction we have, whatever pleasures we have, whatever joys we are experiencing, whatever be the happiness of life - all this is but a reflection, a fractional distorted form, a drop, as it were, from this ocean of the Absolute."

the Adi Granth

Here's a big picture view from the Sikh scriptures of India, the Adi Granth, Peace Lagoon translation:

"It was for the sake of the God-conscious beings that our True Lord created this earth, and began this play of death and birth"

Shulamit Elson

"This higher reality is multidimensional in nature, standing in sharp contrast to the narrowness of everyday life. Once awakened, the human experience becomes vast and boundless, as the awakened individual participates in a universal consciousness as broad, deep, and wide as the universe itself."

Tenzin Palmo

“ Ultimately there is light and love and intelligence in this universe. And we are it, we carry that within us, it’s not just something out there, it is within us and this is what we are trying to re-connect with, our original light and love and intelligence, which is who we are, so do not get so distracted by all this other stuff, you know, really remember what we are here on this planet for. ”

Nataraja

Eastern mysticism recognizes only one Reality as the Transcendent, and yet It is conceived in many forms. ‘Advaita’ (Non-Dual) Vedanta recognizes Brahman as the Ground of Reality, or as the Ultimate Reality whereas the phenomenal world is ultimately unreal (maya or mithya).

The theistic or devotional schools of medieval India accepted God not only as Formless but often worshipped the Lord in many forms. Therefore, God in Advaitic understanding was Formless and One, a conception that became remote in the myriad forms that many Hindus worshipped in ardent devotion in daily life.

The Hindu tradition tried to synthesize these myriad forms into the Trimurti (the Hindu trinity). As a coin has two faces, likewise the Divine has three presiding phases, attributes, or deities: Brahma (the Creator), Vishnu (maintainer), and Mahesvara (change, destroyer i.e. Shiva).

The Nataraja concept of Shiva contains simultaneously his creative, sustaining, and destructive activities. His Nataraja form is consistent with religious, philosophical, and scientific investigation. Creation and dissolution are taking place each moment and are symbolized by the Rudra-Shiva dance. The universal dancer is considered to be Nataraja whose dancing creates the outflow and inflow of the universes, and encompasses all with His eternally still presence as a multidimensional aspect of the cosmic dance (159). In this supreme cosmic dance:

Tripura Rahasya.

 Tripura Rahasya.

Jnana (Supreme Wisdom) is the state devoid of thoughts, will and desire, and is unimpeded by ignorance.

It is certainly the primal state of the knower, but remains unrecognised for want of acquaintance with it.

The Guru and sastras alone can make the individual acquainted with the Self.

The Self is Abstract Intelligence free from

thought. The knower, knowledge and the known are not real as different entities. When differentiation among them is

destroyed, their true nature is evident in the resulting non-dual consciousness, which is also the state of emancipation.

There is in fact no differentiation among the knower, etc. The differences are simply conventions retained for the smooth working of earthly life.

Emancipation is eternal and, therefore, here and now; it is nothing to be acquired.

The Self manifests as the knower, knowledge and the known. The cycle of births and deaths endures with all the apparent reality of a mountain so long as this manifestation lasts. As soon as

the manifestation is realised to consist of the Self alone without any admixture of non-self, the cycle of births and deaths comes to a standstill, and is broken down to fragments like clouds dispersed by strong winds.

Ram Dass

''When we're identified with Awareness, we're no longer living in a world of polarities. Everything is present at the same time.''

“The One Truth the sages call by many names.” ~ Rig Veda

The Vedas have guided our religious direction for ages and will continue to do so for generations to come. And they will forever remain the most comprehensive and universal of all ancient Hindu scriptures.