Thursday, December 31, 2020

Jack Kerouac

 



. . .



 
Close your eyes, let your hands and nerve-ends drop, stop breathing for 3 seconds, listen to the silence inside the illusion of the world, and you will remember the lesson you forgot, which was taught in immense milky ways of cloudy innumerable worlds long ago and not even at all. It is all one vast awakened thing. I call it the golden eternity. It is perfect.

We were never really born, we will never really die. It has nothing to do with the imaginary idea of a personal self, other selves, many selves everywhere, or one universal self. Self is only an idea, a mortal idea. That which passes through everything, is one thing. It’s a dream already ended. There’s nothing to be afraid of and nothing to be glad about. I know this from staring at mountains months on end. They never show any expression, they are like empty space. 

Do you think the emptiness of space will ever crumble away? Mountains will crumble, but the emptiness of space, which is the one universal essence of mind, the one vast awakenerhood, empty and awake, will never crumble away because it was never born.




 

The Three Worlds - Earth, Atmosphere, and Heaven

 


The Three Major Hindu Gods - Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva

The Three Sacred Vedic Scriptures - Rg, Yajur, and Sama

Om Mystically embodies the Essence of the entire Universe. This meaning is further deepened by the Indian Philosophical belief that God first created Sound and the Universe arose from it. As the most Sacred Sound, Om is the Root of the Universe and everything that exists and it continues to hold everything together.

                                           
                                                       

Wednesday, December 30, 2020

Ramakrishna



It's enough to have faith in one aspect of God. You have faith in God without form. That is very good. But never get into your head that your faith alone is true and every other is false. Know for certain that God without form is real and that God with form is also real. Then hold fast to whichever faith appeals to you.

                                        

Papaji



All that you are attached to, all that you Love,

all that you know, someday will be gone.

Knowing this, and that the world is your mind

which you create, play in, and suffer from,

is known as discrimination.

Discriminate between the real and the unreal.

The known is unreal and will come and go

so stay with the Unknown, the Unchanging Truth.

All which appears and disappears is not real,

and no nectar will come from it so don’t cling to it,

and once you let go do not turn back to it.

Stay as Eternity in your own Being.

                                      

ECKHART TOLLE

 


To the ego, the present moment hardly exists. Only past and future are considered important. This total reversal of the truth accounts for the fact that in the ego mode the mind is so dysfunctional. It is always concerned with keeping the past alive, because without it–who are you?
Cover art by Alex Grey featured on the album Paraboala by Tool @2002

                                                 

 

Rumi

 I died as mineral and became a plant,

I died as plant and rose to animal.
I died as animal and I was Man.
Why should I fear? When was I less by dying? Yet once more I shall die as Man, to soar
With angels blest; but even from angelhood I must pass on: all except God doth perish.


What is the difference between Brahman and Īśvara?

 If we take both Brahman and Īśvara, both of them are only seers and do not act by themselves. Both have Māyā; in Brahman as upādhi and in Īśvara as viśeṣaṇa. Upādhi can be separated from Brahman as it is external in nature and only a superimposition. But viśeṣaṇa cannot be separated from Īśvara as it forms integral part of Īśvara. Like Brahman and Īśvara who are differentiated with reference to Māyā, Kūṭastha (multitude) and jīva are differentiated with reference to avidyā. Avidyā (innate spiritual ignorance) acts as an adjunct (upādhi) to Kūṭastha, whereas in the case of jīva, it acts as viśeṣaṇa in the case of jīva.


What is the difference between Brahman and Īśvara? Brahman is Saccidānanda (sat-cit-ānanda), as described in Upaniṣad-s; Tattvabodha says, “evam saccidānanda svarūpaṁ ātmānaṁ vijānīyāt”. Thus, one should know himself as the nature of existence-consciousness-bliss). Īśvara on the other hand is Omnipresent, Omnipotent and Omniscient. Brahman is the cause of the universe and beyond perception. Brahman is Nirguṇa Brahman and Īśvara is Saguṇa Brahman or Brahman with attributes. It rules the universe. In understandable terms, Brahman can be called Paramaśiva and Īśvara can be called as Śiva. Māyā is superimposed on Paramaśiva and in the case of Īśvara, Māyā is an integral part, the stage of Śiva-Śakti union.

What is the difference between Kūṭastha and jīva? Kūṭastha is the Soul, which is immovable amongst the countless body, mind combination. On the other hand, jīva is an individual and many in number like Kūṭastha. Both Kūṭastha and jīva have adjuncts or upādhi. We call this jīva as the Self. Kūṭastha is the supporting consciousness in all the jīva-s and therefore Kūṭastha is also many like multitude of jīva-s. Kūṭastha and jīva are identified on the basis of avidyā. In Kūṭastha, avidyā is upādhi and for jīva, avidyā is viśeṣaṇa. In all the four discussed above, Brahman is always present, but in the case of last three, either due to upādhi or viśeṣaṇa, Brahman’s true nature is veiled. Removing this veil is the path of Self-realization~~Spiritual Journey - 1 2nd part ~~

I didn't write this

                                  

Tuesday, December 29, 2020

God’s Humble Abode is within

 




Everything that is created is in God. You are a divine expression of life and are not separate from the power that created this Universe. If you know that all creations are the choice of God then you can’t make the choice to get out of the choice in order to worship the choice.

We need not worship anybody because we are THAT itself. We must go beyond the veil of manmade concepts and realize that true worship is found in spontaneous love and adoration of Self.

Anything else called worship is just an idea of worship coming from the heads of religions in order to give you fear. If you don’t worship you will go to hell. So worship and fear go together. You can’t worship if you don’t have any fear. But why fear?

God resides inside you. And you are living inside God.

Make the decision with right discrimination.

Sit quietly for ten minutes before sleep and after waking up, and give the rest of the time to the world, helping those who need your help.

By K. Nagori 


                                                     

Om Namo Bhagavate Sri Ramanaya



THE ESSENCE OF RIBHU GITA

Benedictory verses

To Siva

1. Salutations to the Supreme Lord Siva, the pure Awareness

in the sky of consciousness in the Heart, by meditation on whom,

Ganesa, Guha, Mother-Sakti who is the embodiment of Siva’s

Grace, and myriads of Devas, saints and devotees have attained

their cherished goals. (Chapter 1, Verse 1).

To Nataraja

2. From the sky of consciousness of the Heart springs

forth the dancer Nataraja with his blissful consort Freedom,

to the delectation of his devotees who are thus liberated forever.

Unto that Ananda Natesa do we render our devout salutations.

(Ch.1, v.2)

To Ardhanareeswara

3. Unto that Form whose left half is the Mother of all

manifestation and whose right half is the Father of the same,

the jingle of the gems enclosed within the hollow golden anklet

of whose foot is the source of all scriptures, and whose three

eyes (Fire, Sun and Moon) are the illuminants of the universe,

to that Form be our devout salutations. May that divine Form

ever be our protection. (Ch.1, v.3)

        
                                         

Rene Borgia

 


REALITY is what we take to be true.
What we take to be true is what we believe.
What we believe is based upon our perceptions.
What we perceive depends on what we
look for.
What we look for depends on what we think.
What we think depends on what we perceive.
What we perceive determines what we believe.
What we believe determines what we take to be true.
What we take to be true is our REALITY.
(P40)


Upanishads as Brahman



In Vedanta, the word Satyam (Reality) is very clearly defined and it has a specific significance. It means, that which exists in all the three periods of time (the past, present, and future) without undergoing any change; and also in all the three states of consciousness (waking state, dream state and deep-sleep state). This is, therefore, the absolute Reality ,birthless, deathless and changeless referred to in the Upanishads as 
Brãhmãñ


Unknown      

                                                  

ultimate experience of enlightenment

 "Then you disappear, you are almost flooded with the cosmos. You are so small and the cosmos is so vast. You suddenly disappear into it, and that disappearance is the ultimate experience of enlightenment…"


oohhmm…ॐ <<<The Author

                                      

Nisargadatta Maharaj



Do not try to know the truth, for knowledge by the mind is not true knowledge. But you can know what is not true - which is enough to liberate you from the false. The idea that you know what is true is dangerous, for it keeps you imprisoned in the mind. It is when you do not know, that you are free to investigate. And there can be no salvation, without investigation, because non-investigation is the main cause of bondage.

                                               

Monday, December 28, 2020

Barbara Brown Taylor The Luminous Web: Essays on Science and Religion

 


In Sunday school, I learned to think of God as a very old white-bearded man on a throne, who stood above creation and occasionally stirred it with a stick. When I am dreaming quantum dreams, what I see is an infinite web of relationship, flung across the vastness of space like a luminous net. It is made of energy, not thread. As I look, I can see light moving through it as a pulse moves through veins. What I see “out there” is no different from what I feel inside. There is a living hum that might be coming from my neurons but might just as well be coming from the furnace of the stars. When I look up at them there is a small commotion in my bones, as the ashes of dead stars that house my marrow rise up like metal filings toward the magnet of their living kin.

Where am I in this picture? I am all over the place. I am up there, down here, inside my skin and out. I am large compared to a virus and small compared to the sun, with a life that is permeable to them both. Am I alone? How could I ever be alone? I am part of a web that is pure relationship, with energy available to me that has been around since the universe was born.

Where is God in this picture? God is all over the place. God is up there, down here, inside my skin and out. God is the web, the energy, the space, the light—not captured in them, as if any of those concepts were more real than what unites them—but revealed in that singular, vast net of relationship that animates everything that is.

At this point in my thinking, it is not enough for me to proclaim that God is responsible for all this unity. Instead, I want to proclaim that God is the unity—the very energy, the very intelligence, the very elegance and passion that make it all go. This is the God who is not somewhere but everywhere, the God who may be prayed to in all directions at once. This is also the God beyond all directions, who will still be here (wherever “here” means) when the universe either dissipates into dust or swallows itself up again.


                      

Religion vs Spirituality



Religion is about institutionalised often dogmatic and hierarchical social systems focusing on power, control, politics, money, possessions and other secular concerns.

Spirituality on the other hand is about one’s personal and direct experiences of cosmic, supra-natural, trans-egoic and non-ordinary aspects of reality. Experiences which more often than not, are transformational of one’s consciousness, sense of self/identity and often lead to more selfless and global concerns/behaviors.

This is why Buddhism, Taoism and possibly some sects of Hinduism are more accurately described as spiritual rather than religious practices.

Alan Watts?

                                  

Osho



“As far as I am concerned the basic quality of a seeker of truth is to cut himself away from all belief systems, from all borrowed knowledge – in other words, to have the courage to be ignorant rather than to have borrowed knowledge. Ignorance has a beauty; it is at least yours, authentic, sincere. It has come with you. It is your blood, it is your bones, it is your marrow. "Knowledgeability is ugly, absolute rubbish. It has been poured upon you by others, and you are carrying the load of it. And the load is such that it will not give you any opportunity to enquire on your own what truth is.

Your collection of knowledge will answer immediately that this is truth. If you are filled with the Holy Bible, then the question will be answered by the Holy Bible. If you are filled with the vedas, then the question will come out of the vedas. But it will come from some source outside yourself; it will not be your discovery. And that which is not your discovery is not yours. "Truth brings freedom because it is your discovery. It makes you fully into man; otherwise you remain on the level of the animals: you are but you don’t know who you are. "The search for truth is really the search for the reality of your being.

"Once you have entered your being, you have entered into the being of the whole, because we are different on the periphery but at the center we meet – we are one. You can draw many lines from the periphery of a circle towards the center; those lines on the periphery have a certain distance from each other. But as they come closer to the center the distance goes on becoming less. And when they reach to the center the distance disappears. "At the center we are one. "At the periphery of existence we appear to be separate. "And to know the truth of your being is to know the truth of the whole. "There is just one quality, one courage: not to be afraid of being ignorant. On that point there can be no compromise, no cheap borrowed knowledge to decorate yourself with as a wise man. That’s enough! Just be pure and natural, and out of that purity, naturalness, ignorance, innocence, the quest is bound to be born.”


                                                              

Joseph Campbell Primitive Mythology

 The coincidence of the menstrual cycle with that of the moon is a physical actuality structuring human life and a curiosity that has been observed with wonder. It is in fact likely that the fundamental notion of a life-structuring relationship between the heavenly world and that of man was derived from the realization, both in experience and in thought, of the force of the lunar cycle.


The mystery, also, of the death and resurrection of the moon, as well as of its influence on dogs, wolves and foxes, jackals and coyotes, which try to sing to it: this immortal silver dish of wonder, cruising among the beautiful stars and racing through the clouds, turning waking life itself into a sort of dream, has been a force and a presence even more powerful in the shaping of mythology than the sun, by which its light and its world of stars, night sounds, erotic moods, and the magic of dream, are daily quenched. 



                                            

Challenges



Know that Challenges, trials and tribulations are a part of life, especially in this age of Kali Yuga. Scriptures are filled with devotees who underwent one challenge after the other; but did not give up chanting his holy name, or their faith/trust in the Lord didn’t shake. That is in itself a form of gratitude. So remember that Disappointments draw us near God enabling us to trust him in greater degree. You are supposed to know that it’s just a phase..just a single phase.

Unknown Author  


                                                         

  

Sunday, December 27, 2020

Swami Dhyan Giten 3 short couplets



“Nobody ever reaches to God, God comes to you when you are open and receptive, when you are ready.”

― Swami Dhyan Giten

“The inner emptiness is the door

to God.”

― Swami Dhyan Giten

“Every loving word and action create a far reaching ripple effect - like the waves of the ocean.”

― Swami Dhyan Giten 

                                  
                                                      

Brahman is Eternal Truth and Knowledge



He who knows Brahman attains the supreme goal. Brahman is the abiding reality, He is pure knowledge and He is infinity. He who knows that Brahman dwells within the lotus of the heart becomes one with Brahman and enjoys all blessing


                                     

Written on Christmas Eve, 1513

 



I salute you. I am your friend, and my love for you goes deep. There is nothing I can give you which you have not. But there is much, very much, that, while I cannot give it, you can take.

No heaven can come to us unless our hearts find rest in it today. Take heaven! No peace lies in the future which is not hidden in this present little instant. Take peace! 

The gloom of the world is but a shadow. Behind it, yet within our reach, is joy. There is radiance and glory in darkness, could we but see. And to see, we have only to look. I beseech you to look!

Life is so generous a giver. But we, judging its gifts by their covering, cast them away as ugly or heavy or hard. Remove the covering, and you will find beneath it a living splendor, woven of love by wisdom, with power. 

Welcome it, grasp it, and you touch the angel's hand that brings it to you. Everything we call a trial, a sorrow or a duty, believe me, that angel's hand is there. The gift is there and the wonder of an overshadowing presence. Your joys, too, be not content with them as joys. They, too, conceal diviner gifts.

Life is so full of meaning and purpose, so full of beauty beneath its covering, that you will find earth but cloaks your heaven. Courage then to claim it; that is all! But courage you have, and the knowledge that we are pilgrims together, wending through unknown country home.

And so, at this time, I greet you, not quite as the world sends greetings, but with profound esteem and with the prayer that for you, now and forever, the day breaks and shadows flee away.


—Fra Giovanni