Friday, April 30, 2021

Sri Chinmoy, Eastern Light For The Western Mind

 It is good to be immortal, but it is infinitely better to be divine. Socrates said something quite memorable: “All men’s souls are immortal, but the souls of the righteous are both immortal and divine.”

If divinity looms large inside immortality, then only can reality be all-embracing, all-sustaining and all-fulfilling.

The outer life is humanity. The inner life is immortality. The life around is reality. The life above is divinity. The life below is obscurity.

When divinity descends into humanity, the soul of humanity becomes hopeful. When divinity descends into immortality, the soul of immortality becomes meaningful. When divinity enters into reality, the soul of reality becomes fruitful. When divinity enters into obscurity, the soul of obscurity becomes prayerful.

God inspires man with His immortal Inspiration. Man realises God with his immortal self-consecration. God meditates on man for his immortal perfection. Man meditates on God for His immortal Manifestation.

To copy others is an act of stupidity. To copy oneself is an act of absurdity. To imitate God is to imitate Immortality. When we imitate God, our life of imagination ends and our life of realisation dawns.

How can we imitate God when we do not know who God is? God is the Man Divine, supremely inspiring there in heaven and supremely sacrificing here on earth.

What is immortality? Immortality is the consciousness divine that eternally grows and endlessly flows. While growing, it reaches God the Transcendental; while flowing, it reaches God the Universal.

The body says, “Life is but pressure.” The vital says, “Life is but pleasure.” The mind says, “Life is the homeland of ideas.” The heart says, “Life is the homeland of ideals.” The soul says, “Life is the homeland of experiences.” God says, “Life is the homeland of immortality.”

Mother Earth symbolises human aspiration. Hence it is a woman in the Upanishads, Maitreyi, who teaches humanity the highest aspiration toward God: “Of what use to me are things that do not make me immortal?”

Let us be inseparably one with Maitreyi and feel that mortality’s binding consciousness is bound to be flooded with the boundless consciousness of Immortality.

Go deep within. Listen to God whisper, “My child, you are good. Therefore I have made you My Infinity’s Heart. My child, you are nice. Therefore I have made you My Eternity’s Breath. My child, you are great. Therefore I have made you My Immortality’s Life.”


                                                                


Call it anything

 


SHRI DATTA SWAMI


The real form of God is unimaginable as said in the Vedas and there is no question of seeing or talking or touching the God. The the Gita also says that nobody can know God (Mam tu the Veda Na kashchana). Such unimaginable God cannot be said to have a form and cannot even be said to be formless. The Creator is beyond the creation, which is a fourdimensional network of space and time made up of with matter and energy.
The creation contains both formless items like space, energy and air and also items with form like water, earth etc. If you say that God has form or that He is formless, then God becomes a part of the creation and not beyond the creation. The the Veda says that no item in the creation including the pure awareness or life energy is God (Neti Neti…)

                                                     

Carl Sagan


Tom Roberts Art
**Those with the courage to explore the weave and structure of the Cosmos, even where it differs profoundly from their wishes and prejudices, will penetrate its deepest mysteries

                                                              

Thursday, April 29, 2021

Papaji

 "If there is peace in your mind you will find peace with everybody. If your mind is agitated you will find agitation everywhere. So first find peace within and you will see this inner peace reflected everywhere else. You are this peace. You are happiness, find out. Where else will you find peace if not within you?" 


                                                    


 “The atman is the "soul” or “individual soul.” Atman refers to the essence of each individual living thing - its soul or primary living energy. Each living thing - people, animals, plants - have an atman that forms each thing’s eternal essence. The atman is not the body; the body is not eternal. The body houses the atman until the body dies. Atman is immortal and eternal.

Brahman is “world soul” or “cosmic soul.” It is the eternal essence of the universe and the ultimate divine reality. It is the life source of all that has been, is and will be throughout the entire cosmos. It is not an individual being - it is more like the primal ground or reality of all being and existence.

So, the phrase “atman is Brahman” is saying, quite simply, that the individual soul is the world soul.

In other words, each individual soul - say, yours or mine - comes from and is made of the same reality as the world soul. There is no distinction between us, on the one hand, and the ultimate divine reality, on the other“

Unknown Author

                                                 


Sloka 573 Sri Shankara Vivekachudamani

 **Bondage and Liberation are the creations of the non-apprehension of Reality, in the Self (Aathma) they don’t exist. Maya creates bondage and liberation.

🕉Namah Shivaya
Jai Shankara




Alan Watts

 

“You are an aperture through which the universe is looking at and exploring itself. Through our eyes, the universe is perceiving itself. Through our ears, the universe is listening to its harmonies. We are the witnesses through which the universe becomes conscious of its glory, of its magnificence.”

                                                       


VAJRASATTVA


Vajrasattva (Tibetan: Dorje Sempa) is the archtype deity of ultimate purity persisting in Bodhisattva form. He is supplicated in the special yoga of repentance that employs his well-known hundred syllable mantra. The vajra held before his heart in his right hand and the bell in his left symbolize compassion and wisdom. He is shown here with his consort who hold a skull cup, symbolizing spiritual powers and a “driguk” knife which slices through the illusion of duality. This thangka depicts Vajrasattva with his consort, Vajratopa (Dorje Nyema) who is unclad.

                                                         



Saundarya Lahari by Adi Shankaracharya

 Having in-filled the pathway of the Nadis

with the streaming shower of nectar flowing
from Thy pair of feet, having resumed Thine
own position from out of the resplendent
Lunar regions, and Thyself assuming the
form of a serpent of three-and-a-half coils,
sleepest Thou in the hollow of the Kulakunda.

art by Karmym


Then Bhairava says:


Noble lady, although this is the most secret part of the tantras, yet I will speak to you about what has been expounded regarding the (defined) forms of Bhairava.
O Devi, the sakara aspect of Bhairava is insubstantial and of no spiritual value, like the illusory dream-like web of Indra, and is also like the delusion of celestial musicians.

(The sakara sadhanas) are described for those people of deluded intellect, who are prey to distracted thought patterns or are inclined towards the performance of action and ostentatious rituals to traverse the path of meditation.
In reality (the essence) of Bhairava is not the nine forms, nor the garland of letters, nor the three flows and not even the three powers of shakti.
His (Bhairava's) form (cannot be perceived) in nada and bindu nor even in the obstructed half moon, nor in the piercing of successive chakras, nor docs shakti, or energy, constitute his essence.


These things have been told (about the form of Bhairava), like the tales used to frighten children, to induce people of immature intellect to follow the spiritual path, just as the mother entices her child with sweets.
Ultimately (that state of bhairava) cannot be measured in terms of time, space or direction, nor can it be indicated by any attribute or designation.
One can have this inner experience for oneself when the mind is free from modifications or thought patterns. The atman of bhairava, which is known as bhairavi, is then experienced as the bliss of one’s own inner awareness, a state whose form is fullness, free from all contradictions (which is the abode of the entire universe).


Wednesday, April 28, 2021

Marcus Aurelius

 Everything is only for a day, both that which remembers and that which is remembered. Observe constantly that all things take place by change, and accustom thyself to consider that the nature of the Universe loves nothing so much as to change the things which are and to make new things like them. For everything that exists is in a manner the seed of that which will be. 

painting by Eli Tiunine


                                                                      


Robert Adams

 


Ramana Maharshi


This little finger covers the eye and prevents the whole world from being seen.
In the same way this small mind covers the whole universe and prevents Reality from being seen.
Ramana Maharshi

"Sometimes I patrol the perimeter of life,
checking for holes where reality might leak in"
Sayings of Te Toh (?)

                                                    

The Emerald Tablets of Thoth

 ''In the beginning there was void, and nothingness, a timeless, spaceless, nothingness. And into the nothingness came a thought, purposeful, all-pervading and it filled the void. There existed no matter, only force, a movement, a vortex or vibration of the purposeful thought that filled the void.''


Maybe this was one of the best explanations of the concept of GOD.

 In a mother’s womb were two babies. One asked the other: “Do you believe in life after delivery?”The other replied, “Why, of course. There has to be something after delivery. Maybe we are here to prepare ourselves for what we will be later.”


“Nonsense,” said the first. “There is no life after delivery. What kind of life would that be?”

The second said, “I don’t know, but there will be more light than here. Maybe we will walk with our legs and eat from our mouths. Maybe we will have other senses that we can’t understand now.”

The first replied, “That is absurd. Walking is impossible. And eating with our mouths? Ridiculous! The umbilical cord supplies nutrition and everything we need. But the umbilical cord is so short. Life after delivery is to be logically excluded.”

The second insisted, “Well I think there is something and maybe it’s different than it is here. Maybe we won’t need this physical cord anymore.”

The first replied, “Nonsense. And moreover, if there is life, then why has no one ever come back from there? Delivery is the end of life, and in the after-delivery, there is nothing but darkness and silence and oblivion. It takes us nowhere.”

“Well, I don’t know,” said the second, “but certainly we will meet Mother and she will take care of us.”

The first replied “Mother? You actually believe in Mother? That’s laughable. If Mother exists then where is She now?”

The second said, “She is all around us. We are surrounded by her. We are of Her. It is in Her that we live. Without Her, this world would not and could not exist.”

Said the first: “Well I don’t see Her, so it is only logical that She doesn’t exist.”

To which the second replied, “Sometimes, when you’re in silence and you focus and listen, you can perceive Her presence, and you can hear Her loving voice, calling down from above.”

Maybe this was one of the best explanations of the concept of GOD.
Unknown sources 

                                                     

What Is the Process of Reincarnation?



Reincarnation, punarjanma, is the natural process of birth, death and rebirth. At death we drop off the physical body and continue evolving in the inner worlds in our subtle bodies, until we again enter into birth. Aum.

Bhashya

Through the ages, reincarnation has been the great consoling element within Hinduism, eliminating the fear of death, explaining why one person is born a genius and another an idiot. We are not the body in which we live but the immortal soul which inhabits many bodies in its evolutionary journey through samsara. After death, we continue to exist in unseen worlds, enjoying or suffering the harvest of earthly deeds until it comes time for yet another physical birth. Because certain karmas can be resolved only in the physical world, we must enter another physical body to continue our evolution. After soaring into the causal plane, we enter a new womb. Subsequently the old manomaya kosha is slowly sloughed off and a new one created. The actions set in motion in previous lives form the tendencies and conditions of the next. Reincarnation ceases when karma is resolved, God is realized and moksha attained. The Vedas say, "After death, the soul goes to the next world bearing in mind the subtle impressions of its deeds, and after reaping their harvest returns again to this world of action. Thus, he who has desires continues subject to rebirth." 

Aum Namah Sivaya.

                                              

That which does not exist always,..


but exists at one time
and not at another,
cannot be real.
You exist always
and you alone
are therefore real•


SWAMI RAMA His Life and Mission

 Children's hearts are as pure as space. They are born with an infinite love for all. If you ever want to see God, find him in a child. A godly energy is constantly being emitted from a child. If you learn to communicate with a child without contaminating that child's godly awareness you can wash off your fear, sadness, anxiety and depression in no time.



Tuesday, April 27, 2021

Chandogya Upanishad

 

  • Our intrinsic nature is satchitananda Brahman. Incidental nature is body mind sense complex and world.
  • These are not making me to realise the essential nature satchitananda and makes me bind to samsara of sorrow pain,birth death, success and failure, heat and cold, honour and dishonour.
  • Our sadhana therefore is to drop the things which obstructs us to realise our own infinite light of consciousness. 

                                                          

SRI AUROBINDO

 It is the very nature of the soul or the psychic being to turn towards the Divine Truth as the sunflower to the sun; it accepts and clings to all that is divine or progressing towards divinity and draws back from all that is a perversion or a denial of it, from all that is false and undivine. Yet the soul is at first but a spark and then a little flame of godhead burning in the midst of a great darkness; for the most part it is veiled in its inner sanctum and to reveal itself it has to call on the mind, the life-force and the physical consciousness and persuade them, as best they can, to express it; ordinarily, it succeeds at most in suffuring their outwardness with its inner light and modifying with its purifying fineness their dark obscurities or their coarser mixture.

Even when there is a formed psychic being, able to express itself with some directness in life, it is still in all but a few a smaller portion of the being ~ "no bigger in the mass of the body than the thumb of a man" was the image used by the ancient seers -and it is not always able to prevail against the obscurity and ignorant smallness of the physical consciousness, the mistaken surenesses of the mind or the arrogance and vehemence of the vital nature.

This soul is obliged to accept the human mental, emotive, sensational life as it is, its relations, its activities, its cherished forms and figures; it has to labour to disengage and increase the divine element in all this relative truth mixed with continual falsifying error, this love turned to the uses of the animal body or the satisfaction of the vital ego, this life of an average manhood shot with rare and pale glimpses of Godhead and the darker luridities of the demon and the brute.

Unerring in the essence of its will, it is obliged often under the pressure of its instruments to submit to mistakes of action, wrong placement of feeling, wrong choice of person, errors in the exact form of its will, in the circumstances of its expression of the infallible inner ideal. Yet is there a divination within it which makes it a surer guide than the reason or than even the highest desire, and through apparent errors and stumblings its voice can still lead better than the precise intellect and the considering mental judgment.

This voice of the soul is not what we call conscience -for that is only a mental and often conventional erring substitute; it is a deeper and more seldom heard call; yet to follow it when heard is wisest: even, it is better to wander at the call of one's soul than to go apparently straight with the reason and the outward moral mentor. But it is only when the life turns towards the Divine that the soul can truly come forward and impose its power on the outer members; for, itself a spark of the Divine, to grow in flame towards the Divine is its true life and its very reason of existence.





The Mystical Lion

 

“Do not fear change. It is all just change. Change is all there is. The nature of nature is change, only change. No-thing is solid, no-thing lasts. All things arise, change, subside. You–everything you think you are, everything you identify with–are nothing but change. Can anything be more obvious?”

                                                              


Nisargadatta

 

🙏🏼💐The mind becomes hypnotized by the coming and going of the objects it perceives, all while overlooking and forgetting the underlying changeless source of consciousness in which they arise.
Remember again and again, the state of the Wise who remain untouched by the external changes, because of their absorption in the changeless Self.
The more attention given to the transient things of the world the less attention is given to the eternal changeless nature of one’s own spirit, resulting in less peace and more attachment to things that cannot last, further blurring the clarity needed to remain fully awake to what is real.
"If an ant can separate a grain of sugar from the heap of sand, why can't you separate your changeless nature from the changing experiences?"