Sunday, October 31, 2021

MICHAEL JAMES

since the fundamental cause of all the suffering and lack of perfect happiness that we experience in this dream-life and so many other dreamlives is our imaginary self-forgetfulness or self-ignorance, we can end all our suffering and attain perfect happiness only by experiencing the absolute clarity of true self-knowledge. Since the illusion of duality is caused by our self-forgetfulness – our forgetfulness of our fundamental non-dual consciousness of our own infinite and absolute being – it will be dissolved only when we experience perfectly clear non-dual self-knowledge or selfconsciousness.


                                                      


Amir Mourad

 "Whatever dividing lines you may find - they are all shadows of the intellect. The most fundamental blind spot in human consciousness is the failure to recognize that all of your ideas about reality are none other than projections of your own mind. And this too - is another shadow of the intellect - but as long as we are communicating through language, we have to be dragged into this ridiculous business. Drop your attachments in being for or against and discover what is left." - 


                                                 


Jac O'Keeffe

 "Do not decide that stillness or an experience of peace is enough. There is no experience that can give you anything other than experience. Reject all such tricks that the mind presents. In sinking into that which is prior and beyond all thoughts, all states of mind, all experiences, resting in the beingness that sees but cannot be seen, it is revealed that beyond the shadow of a doubt mind itself does not exist. Mind is only a concept." - 


                                                            


Nisargadatta Maharaj

"Use your mind. Remember. Observe. You are not different from others. Most of their experiences are valid for you too. Think clearly and deeply, go into the structure of your desires and their ramifications. They are a most important part of your mental and emotional make-up and powerfully affect your actions. Remember, you cannot abandon what you do not know. To go beyond yourself, you must know yourself." - 

                                           

Gregory of Nyssa

 "That we may merge into the deep and dazzling darkness, vanish into it, dissolve in it forever in an unbelievable bliss beyond imagination, for absolute nothingness represents absolute bliss." - 


                                          


Ribhu Gita

 "Everything is only a concoction of time, space and energy. All else is the trite talk of people who dislike the effort of sadhana which takes them to the Self. This talk is based on their dense ignorance of the Self. Only by persistent practice and experience of sadhana (practice), can one arrive at the truth that all concepts of souls, world, and the cause thereof are just evanescent shadows on the screen of Siva-Self-Brahman." - 


                                         


       

'The Infinite Way’, Joel Goldsmith

 ‘When living out from the center of Being, you are untouched by the thoughts, opinions, laws, and theories of the world. Nothing acts upon you because you do not react to the world of appearances’


                                 


Saturday, October 30, 2021

Michael James

 Whatever turmoil our mind may be in, in the centre of our being there always exists a state of perfect peace and joy, like the calm in the eye of a storm. Desire and fear agitate our mind, and obscure from its view the happiness that always exists within it. When a desire is satisfied, or the cause of a fear is removed, the surface agitation of our mind subsides, and in that temporary calm our mind enjoys a taste of its own innate happiness.

 Happiness is thus a state of being – a state in which our mind’s habitual agitation is calmed. The activity of our mind disturbs it from its calm state of just being, and causes it to lose sight of its own innermost happiness. To enjoy happiness, therefore, all our mind need do is to cease all activity, returning calmly to its natural state of inactive being, as it does daily in deep sleep.


                                        


Namkai Norbu, p. 68 The Crystal and the Way of Light

  This is the open secret, which all can discover

       for themselves.  We live our lives, as it were 
       "inside out," projecting the existence of an "I"
       as separate from an external world which we try 
       to manipulate to gain satisfaction.  But as long
       as one remains in the dualistic state, one's 
       experience has always underlying it a sense of 
       loss, of fear, of anxiety, and dissatisfaction.
       When, on the other hand, one goes beyond the 
       dualistic level, anything is possible. 
               

                                                    

Ramana Maharshi

 "There is no greater mystery than this, that we keep seeking reality though in fact we are reality. We think that there is something hiding reality and that this must be destroyed before reality is gained. How ridiculous! A day will dawn when you will laugh at all your past efforts. That which will be the day you laugh is also here and now."


                                          



fROM THE SWETASZATARA UPANISHAD

 0 Brahman Supreme! Formless art thou, and yet (Though the reason none knows) Thou brmgest forth many forms; Thou brmgest them forth, and then Withdrawcsf them to thyself. Fill us with thoughts of ihcci Thou art the fire, Thou art the sun, Thou art the air. Thou art the moon, Thou art the starry firmament. Thou art Brahman Supreme: Thou art the waters—thou. The creator of all!                                 


                                                      




Friday, October 29, 2021

The Self is everywhere

 

The Self is everywhere. Bright is he, bodiless, without scar of imperfection, without bone, without flesh, pure, untouched by evil. The Seer, the Thinker, the One who is above all, the Self-Existent–he it is that has established perfect order among objects and beings from beginningless time”
Isha Upanishad 7


By Michael James

 "The teachings of Sri Ramana thus throw a fresh light upon the spiritual teachings contained in the Bible. In the same manner, they also throw fresh light upon the spiritual teachings of all other religions. Though his teachings are easily recognised as a fresh and clear expression of the ancient teachings of advaita vēdānta, they in fact clarify the inner essence not only of advaita vēdānta but also of all other spiritual traditions. The truth that he taught is not a relative truth that is limited to any particular religion or human culture, but is the absolute truth which underlies all human experience, and which is the source and foundation of the spiritual teachings of all religions. For certain cultural or other reasons, in some religions this truth is expressed less openly and clearly than in others, but it is nevertheless the truth that lies at the heart of every religion."


                                         




By Michael James

 This exhortation that Christ makes to us not to look here or there but to see that the kingdom of God is within ourself, is the essence of the spiritual practice taught by Sri Ramana and all other true sages. We should give up attending to anything outside ourself, and should instead turn our attention inwards to see the reality that exists within us.


  We see the reality that exists within us. The kingdom of God is not a place but a state – our natural state of pure self-conscious being. When we see it within ourself by turning our attention towards the innermost core of our being, we enter into it and become one with it. This is the state of being born again as the spirit – the state of mystical union with God that all Christian contemplatives seek to attain.

In this state called the ‘kingdom of God’, the pure consciousness ‘I am’, which is the spirit or true form of God, exists and shines alone in all the splendour and glory of its undivided oneness and unlimited wholeness. The teachings of Sri Ramana thus throw a fresh light upon the spiritual teachings contained in the Bible. In the same manner, they also throw fresh light upon the spiritual teachings of all other religions


                                                 





All quotes are by Thomas Merton

 



In a world of noise, confusion and conflict it is necessary that there be places of silence, inner discipline and peace. In such places love can blossom.

In Silence God ceases to be an object and becomes an experience.

Nothing has ever been said about God that hasn't already been said better by the wind in the pine trees.

Contemplation is life itself, fully awake, fully active, and fully aware that it is alive. It is spiritual wonder. It is spontaneous awe at the sacredness of life, of being. It is gratitude for life, for awareness, and for being. It is a vivid realization of the fact that life and being in us proceed from an invisible, transcendent, and infinitely abundant Source.




Thursday, October 28, 2021

By Michael James

"Thus Sri Ramana discovered himself to be the pure transpersonal consciousness ‘I am’, which is the one, unlimited, undivided and non-dual whole, the only existing reality, the source and substance of all things, and the true self of every living being. This knowledge of his real nature destroyed in him for ever the sense of identification with the physical body – the feeling of being an individual person, a separate conscious entity confined within the limits of a particular time and place. Along with this dawn of non-dual self-knowledge, the truth of everything else became clear to him. By knowing himself to be the infinite spirit, the fundamental consciousness ‘I am’, in which and through which all other things are known, he knew as an immediate experience how those other things appear and disappear in this essential consciousness. Thus he knew without the least doubt that everything that appears and disappears depends for its seeming existence upon this fundamental consciousness, which he knew to be his real self."


                                            


Ulladhu Narpadhu’, benedictory verse 1 Sri Tamana

 “...Since the Reality (‘I’) exists within, beyond thought, who can and how to meditate upon that Reality, which is called the Heart? To abide in the Heart as It is (that is, without thought) is truly meditating (upon It) I Thus should you know."


                                                   


        


                                              




Bhagavad Gita, chapter four, verses 1 to 3.)

 “Reason does not contradict, but fulfils. No Sage has ever come to contradict”. Jesus Christ meant the very same thing when He said, “I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil” (Sermon on the Mount) !                    

                                                 




Atmavidya Kirtanam', verse 2

 "The thought ‘I am this body of flesh and blood’ is the one thread on which are strung the various other thoughts. Therefore if we turn inwards, ‘Where is this I?', all thoughts [including the ‘I'- thought] will come to an end and Self-knowledge will then spontaneously shine forth within the cave (the heart) as ‘I-I


                                                               


Guru Vachaka Kovai’. verse 991

 “With true love and faith, follow that religion in which you have belief and turn within; do not jump outwards, criticizing and arguing against other religions on account of bigotry for your own religion.” 


                                                   




Sri Ramana Marishi

 “All right, this body is dead. Now it will be taken to the cremation ground and burnt. It will become ashes. But with the destruction of this body, am I also destroyed? Am I really this body? Untouched by this death which has turned the body into a corpse, here and now I am still existing and shining! Then I am not this perishable body. I and it are different. I am the indestructible ‘I’ (Self). Of all things, I, unbound by the body, alone am real. The body and world are meant only for destruction, but I, who transcend the body, am the eternal Supreme Thing!”


                                               


Wednesday, October 27, 2021

Sri Ramakrishna, Sayings of Sri Ramakrishna

 “What Brahman is cannot be described. All things in the world — the Vedas, the Puranas, the Tantras, the six systems of philosophy — have been defiled, like food that has been touched by the tongue, for they have been read or uttered by the tongue. Only one thing has not been defiled in this way, and that is Brahman. No one has ever been able to say what Brahman is.”

                                                                              

Franklin Merrell-Wolff

 Only in the Silence can the SELF be known as It is, and this is not “knowing” in the subject-object sense.

—From Pathways Through to Space


p. 23

KAIVALYA Upanishad

Unmanifest to the senses beyond all thought infinite m form is God He is the doer of all good he is forever tranquil he is immortal He is One without begining middle or end he all- pervading He IS infinite wisdom and be is bliss The seers meditate on him and reach the source of all beings the witness of all He goes beyond all darkness He is Brahma he is Shiva be is Indra he is the supreme the changeless Reality He is Vishnu he is the primal energy he is eternity He IS all He IS what has been and what shall be He is eternal He who knows him conquers death There IS no other way to liberation

                                           


Tuesday, October 26, 2021

Richard Maurice Bucke, Cosmic Consciousness

 “Then the realization of grandeur of the human soul, immediately followed by the rapture of the realization of God. He glances back and sees how futile his life and ambitions have so far been. Then realizes his present reconcilement with the cosmos and that the rest of his life must be continual .”


                                              


Paul Brunton, Advanced Contemplation: The Peace Within You

 “This notion that we must wait and wait while we slowly progress out of enslavement into liberation, out of ignorance into knowledge, out of the present limitations into a future union with the Divine, is only true if we let it be so. But we need not. We can shift our identification from the ego to the Overself in our habitual thinking, in our daily reactions and attitudes, in our response to events and the world. We have thought our way into this unsatisfactory state; we can unthink our way out of it. By incessantly remembering what we really are, here and now at this very moment, we set ourselves free. Why wait for what already is?”


                                                             

SVErASZATAEA Upanishad

 "Fire though present ra the fircsticks is not perceivcd until one stick is rubbed against another The Self is like that fire it is realized m the body by meditation on the sacred syllable OM Let your body be the stick that is rubbed the sacred syllable OM the stick that is rubbed against It Thus shall you realize God who is hidden within the body as fire is hidden withm the wood Like oil in sesame seeds butter in cream water in the rivet bed fire in tinder the Self dwells within the soul Realize him through truthfulness and meditation Like butter in cream is the Self in everything Knowledge of the Self is gamed through meditation The Self is Brahman By Brahman is all Ignorance destroyed"


                                         


Mundaka Upanishad 3:2:6

“Having fully ascertained and realized the truth of Vedanta, having established themselves in purity of conduct by following the yoga of renunciation, these great ones attain to immortality in this very life; and when their bodies fall away from them at death, they attain to liberation.” (Mundaka Upanishad 3:2:6)


“When death overtakes the body, the vital energy enters the cosmic source, the senses dissolve in their cause, and karmas and the individual soul are lost in Brahman, the pure, the changeless. As rivers flow into the sea and in so doing lose name and form, even so the wise man, freed from name and form, attains the Supreme Being, the Self-Luminous, the Infinite.” (Mundaka Upanishad 3:2:7, 8 )


                                        


Paul Brunton, The Short Path to Enlightenment: Instructions for Immediate Awakening

 “There is really nothing to be achieved here; only something to be accepted-the fact of your own divinity.”


                                                                                     

Bhagavad-Gita

 Those who see with eyes of understanding, the difference between the body and the spirit within the body, and understand the process of liberation from the bondage of the material nature, attain the supreme goal.









(Sri Ramakrishna)

 The nearer you approach to God, the less you reason and argue. When you attain Him, then all sounds—all reasoning and disputing—come to an end. Then you go into samadhi—sleep—, into communion with God in silence.



Monday, October 25, 2021

KATHA 2

The Self Existent made the senses turn out ward Accordingly man looks toward what is Without, and sees not what is within Rare is he who, longing for immortality, shuts his eycs to what IS without and beholds the Self. Fools follow the desires of the flesh and fall into the snare of all encompassing death but the Wise knowing the Self as eternal, seek not the things that pass away


                                           




KATHA Upanishad

 The secret of immortal life is to be found tn purification of the heart, in meditation, in realization of the identity of the Self within and Brahman without. For immortality is simply union With God


                                         


Isha Upanishad

 Worlds there are without suns, covered up with

darkness. To these after death go the ignorant, 
slayers of the Self. 

The Self is one. Unmoving. it moves swifter 
than thought. The senses do not overtake it, for 
always it goes before. Remaining still, it outstrips 
all that run. Without the Self, there is no life. 

                          

They are the breath of the Eternal.

As smoke and sparks arise from a lighted Fire kindled With damp fuel, even so, Maitreyi. 
have breathed forth from the Eternal all 
knowledge and all tutsdom — what we know 
as the Rig Veda, the Yajur Veda, and the 
rest. They are the breath of the Eternal. 

— BRIHADARANYAKA 

Saturday, October 23, 2021

God is the Cause of everything

 God is the Consciousness (Life) principle in all living beings. It is because of the Consciousness that living beings are self-aware. It is because of this awareness that living beings experience the world and express in the world. Just as one Sun illumines the various objects in the world, the One Consciousness shines through all the self-conscious living beings in the Universe. Thus, all Conscious living beings are manifestations of God only. God is the Cause of everything


                                                


Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, 634

 Sri Ramakrishna says, “That which is Brahman is also Kali, the Mother, the Primal Energy. When inactive It is called Brahman. Again, when creating, preserving, and destroying, It is called Sakti. Still water is an illustration of Brahman. The same water, moving in waves, may be compared to Sakti, Kali.” 


                                             


Swami Vivekananda

"T he whole of the Vedanta Philosophy is in this story: Two birds of golden plumage sat on the same tree. The one above, serene, majestic, immersed in his own glory; the one below restless and eating the fruits of the tree, now sweet, now bitter. Once he ate an exceptionally bitter fruit, then he paused and looked up at the majestic bird above; but he soon forgot about the other bird and went on eating the fruits of the tree as before. Again, he ate a bitter fruit, and this time he hopped up a few boughs nearer to the bird at the top. This happened many times until at last the lower bird came to the place of the upper bird and lost himself. He found all at once that there had never been two birds, but that he was all the time that upper bird, serene, majestic, and immersed in his own glory.” (CW VII-80)


                                                      


Cause of suffering

 Free from all desires, the wise man moves freely among people, objects and situations in life without getting affected by them. He is free from the sense of “mine” and “I” regarding everything in this world, including his own body and mind. He attains to real peace. We are already free. But we are under a delusion that we are dependent on people, objects and situations for our happiness. This is the cause of our sorrow.


                                            




Swami Vivekananda,

 Thus, the whole journey is a search of Truth. You proceed from lower Truth to higher Truth. In the words of Swami Vivekananda, “The soul passing through its different stages goes from truth to truth, and each stage is true; it goes from lower truth to higher truth. This point may be illustrated in the following way. A man is journeying towards the sun and takes a photograph at each step. How different would be the first photograph from the second and still more from the third or the last, when he reaches the real sun! But all these, though differing so widely from each other, are true, only they are made to appear different by the changing conditions of time and space.” (CW I-385)


                                                








Approach of Vedanta

 In the words of the French Nobel Laureate, Romain Rolland, “The true Vedantic spirit does not start out with a system of preconceived ideas each man has been entirely free to search wherever he pleased for the spiritual explanation of the spectacle of the universe.”


                                                


Sivananda

 THE SUPREME YOGA

In the eyes of the wise person there is no world. One abandons the notions of the existence of objects and one rests in one’s own pure Self. When all divisions are given up, the indivisible alone remains. It is pure, one, beginningless, and endless.

                                                       

An old Hindu prayer. The metrical translation from the Sanskrit writers, by Mr. J. Muir

 TO THE KUNDALINI—THE MOTHER OF THE UNIVERSE.

** **
"What Yogis now, what Rishis of old,
The greatness of that Mother hath told,
Who from her own breast gave birth
To the sky and to the earth.
Thou hung the Heavens in empty space,
And holds the earth in its place,
Thou made and lighted up the sun
To stay and shine this earth upon.
Thy power transcendent, since their birth
Asunder holds the heaven and earth,
As chariot wheels are kept apart
By axles made thru workman's art.
In Shakti, who with thee can vie,
Thou fills the earth, the air, the sky;
Thy presence, unperceived, extends
Beyond the world's remotest ends
.
A million earths, if such there be,
A million skies fall short of thee;
A billion suns can not out shine
The effulgence of thy light divine.
The worlds, which mortals boundless deem
To thee but as a handfull seem.
Mother, Thou art without a peer.
On earth, or in yonder heavenly sphere.
Thee, God, such matchless powers adorn
That thou without a foe was born.
Thou art the Lord of Lords,
Adored by Men—revered by Gods.
The circling times which wear away,
All else, to thee can not decay;
Thou shinest on in youthful force,
While countless Yugas run their course
.
Unvexed by cares, or fears, or strife,
In bliss serene flow on thy life,
With faith we claim thine aid divine,
As thou art Mother, and we are thine.