Poem by Rama Tirtha

Know for certain that you yourself are God,
The supreme Self, the eye of the eye,
Which the eye cannot see.
You are the essence of speech,
Which speech cannot express.
You are the hearer of hearing,
Which the ear cannot hear.
You are the life of life,

Who does not need the lifeforce to love.
Recognize that you are the light of the mind,
Which the mind cannot know.

O man of God,
When duality goes, what do we lose?
Have you ever drunk such a potion as this?
Till now, you have never done yourself justice.
You took an ocean for a water drop
And perceived not the mountain within you.
The brilliance of all lights is yours,
Why are your own eyes dim?

The voice of the bubble in the river
Says, “You and I are one.
Do not think yourself different,
You and I are one.”
When the bud burst at dawn in the garden,
It whispered quickly into the ear of the rose,
“Today my tongue has been loosened,
You and I are one.”
When the mirror was held before the face,
The reflection seemed to say, “Brother,
Why are you so amazed to see me?
You and I are one.”
The grain of corn said to the sheaf,
“Quiet, this is no place to argue.
A glimpse of unity has appeared in multiplicity,
You and I are one.”
When I came into the world, I saw
That all growth proceeds from my true essence.
As the strand is one with the cotton.

You and I are one.
Why do you think I am a stranger,
Why do You hide your beautiful face?
Remove the curtain, come forward,
You and I are one.

O seekers of God,
I am with you at every moment.
I am manifest in your eyes
And hidden in your hearts.
The notion that I am distant or hidden
Is purely your fancy.
I am ever present as your support,
Like the sea supporting the wave.
I am charmed by my own beauty,
I am present in love and amidst lovers.
I am Leila and Majnun, Wamiq and Azra.
Sometimes I practice supplication,
Sometimes independence is my glory.
Both attitudes suit me,
I am both servant and master.
In form I am human, in nature divine.
I am more manifest than the manifest,
More hidden that in the hidden.
My nature is unlike the objects of the world.
Though hidden in my true nature,
I am manifest as the world.
Though in reality I have no veil,
Yet am I encased in the veil of concealment.

Earth and sky cannot contain your greatness,
Yet You are wholly present within my heart.
No hint of duality can enter your unity,
No mirror can hold itself up before You.
Go your ways, messenger! Only one’s own heart
Can receive a message like this.
Beware, imprudent one, do not forget God.
If you can forget, forget the ego.

        by Rama Tirtha

    *    Rama Tirth, the well-known poet-saint from India, was born on October 22, 1873, in the village of Muraliwala, about 60 miles north of Lahore, in what is now Pakistan. 


http://www.ramatirtha.org/rama.htm

Seeking Enlightenment

Now more than ever many people have added a new quest to their daily existence – “I want to be a Buddha” or I want to live spiritually. So they set about it, seeking spiritual guides and gurus, wearing “malas” and doing japas, finding new forms of meditation, reading every book on enlightenment and trying so hard to “love” everyone. Then they realize that their life has become even more miserable than when they were not spiritual.

Of course, this is how it is supposed to be. When you are on the spiritual path, your life is bound to get more difficult and exhausting, at least till you are finally liberated. If the path was not difficult you will not appreciate the beauty of the final recognition that you are a “no-thing”, that you have no center, that you are not an idea called “me”.

So seeking enlightenment is bound to make you suffer, it’s bound to frustrate you and it’s bound to exhaust you, provided you are really authentic and honest in your quest.

What do you find at end of seeking?

You don’t find anything, you don’t reach any state, you are not in possession of a new knowledge, you don’t become holy, you don’t create any new identities. The final liberation is when you find that you are not what you ever thought you were – that you are “nothing” itself, pure and simple to the core. You are not awareness, you are not consciousness, you are not soul, you are not god, you are simply nothing. But not a dead, empty, spiritless, boring nothing, but a rich, free and dancing nothing.

And then there is no doubt, there is no need for confirmation, there is no need to “do” anything to get somewhere, there is a final and complete liberation for this mind. Then you dance empty handed, and realize that you have always been dancing empty handed it’s just that now you know it. You have always been free, but until you realize it there is no freedom.

When the mind is liberated it does not seek “sanyas” or detachment. It becomes really playful and even mischievous. It has no problems anymore to deal with; it knows that it’s a servant to a higher power that you are. Now it does what it’s supposed to do, it plays, it creates, it enjoys and it relishes life in every way without any fear or bondage.

The truth of who you are, it’s so liberating and yet so powerful. It has a deep strength that you could never have imagined. This is the strength that propelled Jesus, this is the strength guided Ramana, this is the strength that enshrouded Siddhartha Buddha and yet it’s so ordinary and so fresh. It’s not “divinine” or holy, it’s just simply nothing. It’s as much in a piece of shit as it is in a pearl or a diamond. It’s as much “you” as it was Jesus or Ramana.

The Buddha was no different from who you are, and yet we worship him, we place him on a pedestal, we look at him as a divine figure and so we alienate him into a “god head”. So Buddha becomes a concept and a state that needs to be achieved.

And yet we are all “Buddhas” in our essence. It’s not something “big”, it’s just our true nature. We are all simply the nothing that is everything. And this is not an imagination but a simple reality, a scientific reality, a truth beyond ideas and concepts. But you have to realize this truth to know that it’s scientific, that it’s a fact, that it’s absolutely real, and that all your other ideas and concepts were unreal and imagined, but not the truth. Truth is not imagination, truth is reality.

Why do we seek enlightenment?

Because our nature wants to know itself. We are tired of our delusions and imaginations. We are tired of the endless tyranny of thoughts that the “unliberated” mind churns out. We are tired of moving like zombies everyday, begging for scraps of happiness from our circumstances. We are tired of seeking love and feeling cheated. We are tired of seeking money and feeling poor. We are tired of living everyday in fear.

We finally realize that this is not how we are supposed to live, that there is something within us that knows that the mind is in a wrong vision, we know intuitively that we are meant to be “free” and playful. We know this because we are “it”, we are freedom itself. Seeking enlightenment is the pull of your nature towards itself.

Once the seeking starts, it can only end in liberation. Till it ends, there will be suffering. Once it ends, you are free, and free forever. Nothing can ever touch this final realization. No ideas, no concepts, no arguments can ever take you away from your realization. You know you are finally home. This is the end of seeking and it’s an incredible relief.

When we seek enlightenment, we are constantly holding on to identities. We think we are awareness, we think we are consciousness, we think we are the “Now”, we think we are the Buddha, we think we are the space. We imagine all sorts of states, we imagine ourselves to be something, and it’s very exhausting, it’s very frustrating. And it finally ends when we run out of all our identities and the “me” finally dies to that fact that it never existed in the first place.

So keep seeking, keep exhausting yourself, keep running amok till you find that it’s all useless. You realize finally that you are already who you are, that you don’t have to “be” anything. That’s when the “me” jumps off the cliff and you become “centre less” the way you have eternally been, and then the mind starts dancing.

            *from Towards Life blog   http://www.towardslife.com

When the Seeking Dream Dissolves

                                             Tony Parsons

    In the play of appearance, wholeness can pretend to be something apart which is rushing around all over the place looking for that which already is. It is an amazing and unfulfilling dream-like story which is uniquely human and is also sublimely without purpose. For the apparent seeker, however, the pain and longing of separation seems very real.

     So, should the seeker climb the spiritual mountain or simply let go and surrender to life? . . . is that the question? Or is it possible that there is no question and no answer.
     Maybe what is sought is all there is. Perhaps the beloved that is longed for is already constantly happening . . . it never went away . . . the seeker did, to look for it.

     Perhaps, when the seeking dream dissolves into that unbounded energy, which sees no separation and has no agenda or expectation, then suddenly that longing is embraced in that unconditional love that is no-ones.

         ~ Tony Parsons  

                    http://www.theopensecret.com/

                 

Infinite Being Seeks Nothing

The apparent individual self always seeks security.  It's afraid to feel vulnerable, insecure. It's afraid to let go and just be without trying to be a something, or a somebody.   It desperately needs to be an individual . . . a separate individual.  Yet, that is the cause of the seeking, the suffering.

Awakening, or enlightenment,  happens only when the concept of an individual self is out of the way. The idea of a 'you' or a 'me' is only a concept. So, how does one get out of the way of one's self?  By realizing that you are not a self. There is no 'you', nor is there a 'me'. Never has been.

 That what you are seeking you already are!

Here's how the mind functions. As soon as there is ‘me’, there must be ‘other than me’, and that is the seeming separation. That is the cause of all of our problems. When that is understood, what problem is there, if there is no center (a self) to refer it to?

    ~Namaste'
          Diane

What I Am

What I am is Life itself. I am not this appearance of a separate individual. I am not this image of a body. I am not this label or thought. But in fact all of this is happening in what I am. I am not in this body. The body is simply an image appearing within what I am. I am absolute nothingness. Paradoxically, I am absolute everything. Everything is simply nothing appearing as everything. This is what I am. Language is limited and can never truly express this. However, all that appears: every word, every image, thought, emotion, physical sensation, is happening in Life itself. This is not special, this is not owned by any particular special enlightened people. This is most ordinary.


In this play of Life there is the play of searching for fulfilment or enlightenment. There seems to be a path towards reaching this goal. There seem to be things that ‘I’ can ‘do’ in order to get closer to enlightenment. These things seem to provide a certain relief for a while but then the pain of separation seems to return. This game of seeking is played out. It is eventually seen that any relief is simply temporary. Replacing one state with another is found to be totally unsatisfactory. Any idea of hope is seen through. The play of Life is seen as it is.

What I am is beyond all states. What I am is before, during and after any state. What I am is timeless. What I am is hopelessness. What I am is enlightenment. What I am is too simple for this long word ‘enlightenment’. What I am simply is. In not-knowing, I know.

This can not be understood. This can not be worked out. This can not be ‘got’. This can not be thought of. This can not be found or lost. This can not be experienced. But somehow this is already known beyond all experience. This is the nature of what I am. This, right now, is the enlightenment which is sought, and this is the enlightenment which can never be found.

         ~ essay by Unmani Liza Hyde (author of I Am Life Itself)
                   http://www.not-knowing.com/

Mooji and Self-Inquiry

Mooji explains in detail the self-inquiry.

An Exercise in Futility

A LIVING GEM FROM RAMESH S. BALSEKAR

There should be no misunderstanding about this "living in the present moment." It does not mean being blind to the future, or forgetting the lessons of the past. It means being so fully and deeply aware of the present moment, that the necessary doing in the present moment happens spontaneously, far more completely and far more effectively when it is not hampered by the frustration of the past and the catastrophic expectations of the future.

Living in the present moment does not mean trying to contact this timeless, eternal present moment by concentrating your attention on the now-moment, on whatever you are presently experiencing. It may sound reasonable that some sort of practice of attention to the immediate present is necessary to be in contact with the timeless, present moment. But actually such a practice would be an exercise in futility because any effort, any practice to contact this present moment must necessarily require another moment, and another, to contact the earlier moment which had been long lost in the flow of time! You cannot use time to get out of time; you cannot use mind to get out of the mind. Any such effort can only reinforce that which you intend to uproot.

        ~1989
    *The late Advaita sage, Ramesh S. Balsekar was a disciple of Nisargadatta Maharaj, himself a renowned Advaita master. Balsekar was drawn to Advaita as a boy and particularly enjoyed reading the teachings of Ramana Maharshi and Wei Wu Wei as an adult. After his retirement from banking, Ramesh discovered Nisargadatta Maharaj, who became his guru. Ramesh wrote some 40 books on Advaita, and starting in 1982, met spiritual seekers daily at his home in Mumbai. He died September 27, 2009.

Inception........Dreams Within Dreams....AWAKENING!

This is well worth your time to read from my friend on FaceBook, Divyaa Kummar,

Divyaa Kummar's  Notes:


POSTING A NOTE THAT I WROTE IN RESPONSE TO SOMEONE ON MY DAILY MAILING LIST ASKING FOR SOME PERSONAL INPUT ON THE MOVIE INCEPTION!THE WRITING IS NOT ON THE MOVIE AS MUCH AS WHAT IT TRIGGERED WITHIN ME IN REFERENCE TO THE CONCEPT OF INCEPTION -AND ON GURU'S BEING THE TRUE DREAM SCIENTISTS!!



Dearest all,



I saw the movie INCEPTION last night and it hurtled me back to my ‘Seth’ days- an early Master through whom I learnt a lot! Indeed at that point to be a ‘dream scientist’(Seth’s term) was a dream of mine- which means to help and enable people from the vantage position of their dream state - by entering their dreams and enabling them directly through their subconscious! The way i viewed this role was that one could be a dream scientist as a counselor- helping people to EXTRACT- deal with the demons within their subconscious- which indeed creates most of the challenges that we call ‘problems’ in any current life! This would also imply helping them to seed, focus on and enhance their positive beliefs (INCEPTION) so that those are what would play out as their life experiences! One could be a dream scientist to regress people to EXTRACT-touch and release limiting past life experiences or even deep rooted sanskars (latent impressions)- what we often call karma! One could be a dream scientist to play the role of a sorcerer or shaman (shape shifter which doesn’t literally meaning changing physical shape but changing their energy fields) enabling people to directly manipulate the subconscious to create the seemingly impossible - and be creator indeed! (INCEPTION!) Just today I was teaching my tarot class the power of using tarot symbols…and realized this too is a form of INCEPTION! We can use the power of symbols to deeply impact our subconscious mind in positive ways!



So yes, there are many beautiful ways that a dream scientist could work (other than the industrial espionage of the movie ;-)) - but all of them imply working with the rich field –we call the subconscious! (There is a more in-depth article on subconscious on my website and fb!) Simply put the subconscious is the point of first creation and the physical world which we think is more ‘real’ is only the second point of creation! Thus what may appear as the nebulous or intangible realm of thoughts, feelings, beliefs, fears is the reality that reflects as our physical life - its people, things and events or lack of! If you view this through the analogy of looking at yourself in the mirror this understanding becomes startling - because the you who stands in front of the mirror (whom you consider as physical-real) represents the subconscious world - and your reflection (which you consider merely an apparition in a mirror and thus not real) represents your physical world! In reference to the movie - working with dreams to remove limitations would be what they called ‘EXTRACTION’ (but they this used for stealing ideas!) and working with dreams towards seeding our subconscious towards enhanced physical manifestation would be what they called ‘INCEPTION’! (Which the movie used for brain washing/industrial competitiveness!)



Of course it’s been almost ten years since I read Seth and worked with my dreams …and now MY JOURNEY HAS A DIFFERENT FOCUS THAN NIGHTLY DREAMS -INDEED A SINGLE MINDED FOCUS ON AWAKENING FROM THE MORE LONG TERM DREAM STATE – THAT WE CALL EGO-BASED LIFE AND EXISTENCE!! ! And it comes to me that indeed this is what any spiritual mentor, facilitator or guide is doing- helping people awake from their larger dream of ego-self and from the dream of separation and ignorance – and thus while the means might have changed I am in some small way a ‘dream’ scientist! Indeed GURUS- AWAKENED SOULS WHO ARE COMPLETELY AND WHOLLY AWAKE FROM THE EGO DREAM STATE AND ITS DREAM IDENTITY… WHO KNOW WHAT WE TAKE AS ‘REAL-REALITY’ TO BE BUT A DREAM AND ARE THUS AWAKE IN THE AUTHENTIC REALITY BEYOND THIS STATE… ARE THE TRUE DREAM SCIENTISTS!! For they, willfully enter creation, the play, the illusion, the dream (call it what you may) that we live in - even though they are awakened! And they enter this dream state we call the human experience only to enable us to awake! Indeed in the movies language they perform a powerful form of ‘INCEPTION’ by seeding us with the awareness of who we really are… awakening us to our authentic Self… inspiring us in such profound ways…that we can never quite go back to being the same again …and thus forever changed are we and our goals! Indeed gu-ru means removing the darkness of ignorance and limitations of ego-self so literally they are EXTRACTORS too (and in more beneficial ways than the movie!)!



At a much deeper level the movie touches upon the deepest of spiritual understandings- that life is but a 'illusion/dream'! And that we the HUMAN RACE ARE EXPERIENCING A CO-CREATIVE DREAM - IN THE MOVIES LANGUAGE: WE ARE ALL SHARING A DREAM! AND YET WE ARE EACH THE SOLE CREATOR OF OUR OWN DREAM (WORLD) - NO ONE ELSE EXISTS IN ‘MY’ WORLD (DREAM) OTHER THAN I! ALL AND EVERYTHING THAT MAKES UP WHAT I CALL THE WORLD IS MY CREATION AND PROJECTION- be it the planet, countries, billions of people, world events good and bad, educational or legal systems, teachers, gurus, crooks and terrorists…everything, everything, everything …! Physics also explains that there is only one observer- you! Indeed there is no one other than I! Thus only I can bring about changes in my world- no matter how ludicrous that sounds! Everything and everyone are just props… the world is a prop for my ‘dream’! Thus the point of power is always within me - only I can bring changes in my world- in Gandhi’s words literally “Be the change I want to see” because there is only me and my projections! Think of this in terms of your night dreams- it’s peopled, its got things and places and events- but they are all your creation surely? No one else can walk into your dream or change things around!? Ah…other than maybe a dream scientist!



LET’S GO DEEPER! THUS WHEN WE AS SOULS DO ENTER A DREAM EXPERIENCE (IN LAYMAN LANGUAGE WHEN WE TAKE BIRTH) WE HAVE AN INBUILT DREAM SCIENTIST –GURU CONSCIOUSNESS- WHICH ENABLES US AT THE RIGHT TIME! And indeed we even have an inbuilt ‘inception’ – initially our desires which inspire us towards our divine/soul purposes; and ofcourse later the deeply embedded foreknowledge of authentic Self, which inspires us back home! We even have the inbuilt wake up call/the music/ the jerk that the movie shows…call it the kundalini which once its starts to rise we have only that much ‘time’ left in the dream state! Ofcourse time only exists in the dream state -remember how the man in the movie aged- which is our linear world! In its deepest context its all about consciousness choosing to dream…experience Self through the highly creative dream state … which is symbolized by VISHNU- and thus actually- at its deepest there is only one dreamer! And then one human mind! Everything is but a projection of ‘God/consciousness’! There is no individual me! Thus as long as 'i' exist ( am dreaming) - i need must claim complete responsibility for my world -but as I awake- there is no me and no my world all is a play of consciousness! (There is a long in-depth writing on this aspect on my website and fb- lets peel the cosmic onion on responsibility-have written this part very simply here to express the gist!)



Let me briefly switch tracks to another aspect that the movie highlights- all those shooting scenes- and the dream armies! This shows us how deep our subconscious defenses are! Thus we may think we think or feel something but it’s we believe at our subconscious levels that counts! There are parts so deeply hidden or embedded within, that your subconscious can strongly resist their unearthing! Some layman ways to reach these are counseling, hypnotherapy, regression etc- but the best way really is the ‘INCEPTION of spiritual wisdom! This expands your subconscious …so that its limitations and fears automatically dissolve( ARE EXTRACTED) …and there is increasingly less limiting stuff left deep within! This is truly INCEPTION of the highest order surely- where instead of trying to ‘work out’ your subconscious issues- the spiritual inception of awareness automatically helps dissolve them! Indeed meditation is a powerful inception – because through it you flood your subconscious with love joy beauty peace etc and its opposites can’t be! Your subconscious spontaneously releases its deeply embedded issue-making beliefs and feelings! They are automatically ‘extracted’ (to use words from the movie!!) The movie also touches upon the theme that GUILT (& BLAME) is one of the most deeply embedded thorns in our subconscious- difficult to move away from- and once again through the spiritual path they automatically begin to recede- no need of all those subconscious defence armies we saw in the movie!!



But let me go back to some simpler aspects and speak about our NIGHT DREAMS rather than about the deeper aspect of our life/reality being a dream! So our night dreams are a dream within a dream! And indeed our night dreams can be used very productively- rather than just allow whatever happens to happen! This will go into another article- but there is an older one on dreams already up on my website! Very briefly- a) Whatever you think about or focus on just before falling asleep often becomes the door for that nights dream zone (or at least one of the nights dreams)! Thus instead of falling asleep with worry, fear, fretting about the day, what didn’t work or recalling old hurts etc…try and sleep on a positive note and open the door to a positive creative zone because what you dream you further manifest/experience in your life! b) Willfully conjuring something you want to create while falling asleep so that you can use the rich dream state to augment that (with practice) c) Make dream intentions before falling asleep: for example I need guidance on ‘x’; I need clarity about ‘y’; I need to choose between x & y…and even though you may not remember when you awake … over the days… you will get guidance or answers or clarity or some aid -not through a dream recall or any mysterious manner- but some obvious day to day manner! d) You can even ask to visit certain astral realms, masters and get instruction-spiritual or layman! e) You can willfully ask for a dream inception-something that will help you towards your goal- and no you wont have to wait for Learnado the actor to come in ;-)- your inner dream scientist will do the needful! e) Over time there is a process called lucid dreaming- which is the most powerful way to work with the dream state- where you realize you are dreaming whilst dreaming – and can change things directly whilst dreaming- create a ‘dream’ and thus its experience in your life!



This is just a quick off the top of my head note! Tried to keep it simple! I can add so much to it. Explain it thru different words even! ! BUT FOR NOW LET IT BE AN INCEPTION OF ITS OWN!

Love from my heart to yours

Divyaa Kummar


http://www.divyaakummar.com/

Only when one awakens

can he tell of his dreams.

Be still, and let the dream come,

so it may fade away.

This is the way of freedom from karma

on the path of meditation
 
              ~ Divyaa Kummar

Eternal Unchangeable

As a spider weaves his thread out of his mouth, plays with it and then withdraws it


again into itself, so the eternal unchangeable Lord, who is without form, without attributes,

who is absolute knowledge and absolute bliss, evolves the whole universe out of Himself,

plays with it for a while, and again withdraws it into Himself.

            - Bhagavatam

You Have the Courage ...it's there ....Go Further Into Silence

You are not who you think you are.....

The first steps in self acceptance are not at all pleasant, for what one sees is not a happy sight.  One needs all the courage to go further.  What helps is silence.  Look at yourself in total silence, do not describe yourself.  Look at the being you believe you are and remember - you are not what you see.  'This I am not - what am I?' is the movement of self-enquiry.  There are no other means to liberation, all means delay.  Resolutely reject what you are not, till the real Self emerges in its glorious nothingness, its 'not-a-thingness.'
              ~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj  (from I Am That) 


Rumi, the famous Sufi poet, describes the need to go further, deeper into inner inquiry, and NOT to go back asleep:

The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.

Don't go back to sleep.

You must ask for what you really want.

Don't go back to sleep.

People are going back and forth across the doorsill

where the two worlds touch.

The door is round and open.

Don't go back to sleep.

Hooks That Pull Us

‎"There are a number of very powerful hooks that pull us out of the present moment into the world of the mind. Looking to others for acknowledgement, approval or acceptance is an example of such a hook. Fearing rejection or judgment from others is another hook. Anything that entangles you in the mind of another is a hook that pulls you out of Presence."
        
            -Leonard Jacobson

Tricky Business.....This Nonduality Stuff

Over the years the broad teaching of nonduality and the word "nonduality" itself have entered the spirituality mainstream and even the general mainstream.


Lives are impacted in different ways. There's a peaceful, holistic, harmonious, Yogic side to nonduality which benefits a person's life. It is more about coherence and oneness. Then there is the jarring and harsh side of nonduality -- the bottom line nonduality -- in which our ego strategies are seen through or split wide open. Knowing who you are requires a cutting away of who you think you are. Practically no one is exempt from that harshness since layers of ego strategy are constantly re-constituting. For living life effectively, I highly recommend the holistic, Yogic type of path. Seeing who your really are, which is the atmosphere in which this effective life is lived (and which it actually is) requires that one question the effective life even while living it.

It's tricky business and only those who have no other choice will engage in it.

     ~from interview with Jerry Katz (author of the book, Essential Writings on Nonduality)
                           http://www.nondualitymagazine.org/

Who am I?

    To experience this video, quiet the mind, be patient, and read slowly......


     Miracles, healings, and seemingly magic occurs when we "drop down" from the thinking mind into the Heart, where True Self always is.  But, how can we do this?  Years and years of meditation are NOT necessary!  Right now you can do this! The NOW is the NOW, the PRESENT.....this place (that isn't a place at all) is all that exists, so if this is so great and easy, how can we enter this NOW?

     Here's a simple technique that I use every time I notice my thoughts are racing around in a whirlwind:

While standing, place your feet about shoulder's width apart pointing straight forward.  Now here's where the magic happens.  Relax your shoulders, take a deep breath and let it out, drop your jaw into a soft, relaxed position.  Now....imagine what it would feel like if your knees were soft and relaxed.  And now feel your knees become soft, and notice your perception, your problems, your thoughts melt away.   You have dropped down from the thinking mind into a feeling place, the Heart. 
     You can do this sitting down, too.  Every time you observe the mind thinking obsessively, that's the ego at work.  Remember, "drop down" into your Heart Zone.  No thoughts, no-body, and no-thing is happening when we are Being.
     ~ Blessings.
             Diane

Self-Inquiry

Self-Inquiry  is found to be boring and irrelevant by many people because it promises them no special experience to enjoy other than being their own self. People should always do what feels natural. Nothing can be forced.

Eventually with the practice of meditation and other types of yogas, the mind becomes more subtle. The understanding of the nature of consciousness as free from outer perception (of physical objects) as well as internal perceptions (dreams, visions, other mental experiences) can then start to emerge. Once the independent nature of consciousness (free from all perceptions) is understood, one can recognize the essential quality of existence and pure being in the midst of various experiences.

When attention/awareness become self-focused, that is called Self-Inquiry. When attention lights up attention, awareness lights up awareness, consciousness lights up consciousness, Self is Realized as Sat-Chit-Ananda, the ultimate subject, the very core of being. Sri Ramana called it simply the Heart, whose nature is that of silence which is beyond all understanding.


From: Self-Inquiry: The Science of Self-Realization

By Dr. Harsh K. Luthor
Source: http://luthar.com/2007/06/29/self-inquiry-the-science-of-self-realization/

Nobody, NO-BODY - There

What you really want is to have a profound

experience of your own true nature.

At the deepest level, you are compelled to seek

out the true Source of "who" you really are.

The irony, though, is that when you seemingly

arrive at the very core of your Being, there will

be nobody there to greet you.

Who you think you are can't possibly survive

your own awakening.

Nobody can survive it

             - Chuck Hillig, "Seeds for the Soul",

                      Black Dot Publications 2003

The Presence That You Are

The Presence that you are radiates outwards touching every flower, tree and mountain, and every distant star. But it also radiates inwards, caressing every cell in your body. It also radiates backwards through time, embracing, comforting and healing the child you once were. It even radiates forwards, affecting and transforming your future.

                -Leonard Jacobson

The One......The All

The Great Paradox

Infinite Being is The One and The All. We are aspects of the One, aspects of Infinite Being, each of us experiencing life from our own unique perspective. This concept leads to the idea that you are one small part of an infinitely large variety of life. However, when you go within and contact the deeper levels of consciousness, you begin to sense that that concept is actually one of the illusions of life as we know it.

Infinite Being is The One and The All. We can see the infinite variety of The All in the external world but, at the deepest level of consciousness, each individual part of The All is The One.

At the deepest level, you are not a part of The One. Within the One, there are no parts. There is no separation. Within the One, you are The One. You are Infinite Being.

If this were not so, then at that deepest level of awareness, there would be both The One and you. That would make two, and that is not what is there at that deepest level of consciousness. Only The One exists in that ultimate state. Therefore you are The One, as, indeed, is everyone else.

Infinite Being is The One and The All.

We are Infinite Being.

So, The Great Paradox of Infinite Being is this:

 While you appear to be one of infinite parts of The All, at the deepest level of awareness you are not a separate part. You are, instead, simply The One.

The reason for the paradox is that we live in an existence which creates the illusion of separation. Deep down, we're all the same One but, to be able to experience all the drama and excitement that life in this world has to offer, the appearance of separation into the All was created.

This was done so that Infinite Being can observe itself from an infinite variety of viewpoints. That includes your unique viewpoint, my unique viewpoint, and everyone else's unique viewpoints.

     *This article was an excerpt from the e-book, Discover Your Purpose in Life, by Owen Waters.

You Say You Want Happiness.....but

Built into the very structure of the egoic self is a need to oppose, resist, and exclude to maintain the sense of separateness on which its continued survival depends. So there is "me" against the "other," "us" against "them."


The ego needs to be in conflict with something or someone. That explains why you are looking for peace and joy and love but cannot tolerate them for very long. You say you want happiness but are addicted to your unhappiness.

Your unhappiness ultimately arises not from the circumstances of your life but from the conditioning of your mind.

                 - Stillness Speaks by Eckhart Tolle

Liberating Jesus

A movie DVD that is very much worth your time ordering!

Struggling, Striving, Thinking, Praying, . . . only distractions

Everything Comes Back to Nothing

Inexplicably it comes. When you least expect it. For a reason you can never know. One moment you are striving, figuring, imagining, and then, in the blink of an eye, it all disappears. The struggle disappears. The striving disappears. The person disappears. The world disappears. Everything disappears, and the person is like a pinpoint of light, just receding until it disappears. And there’s nobody there to witness it. The person is gone. Only, only awareness remains. Nothing else. No one to be aware. Nothing to be aware of. Only that remains itself. Then it’s understood, finally and simply.


Then everything—all the struggle, all the striving, all the thinking, all the figuring, all the surrendering, all the letting go, all the grabbing hold of, all the praying, all the begging, all the cursing, too—was just a distraction. And only then is it seen that the person was, is, and ever will be no more than a thought. With a single thought, the person seems to reemerge. With more thoughts, the world seems to reemerge right out of nothing. But now you know.


The incarnation is nothing more than a thought. A thousand incarnations are but a thousand thoughts. And this amazing miracle of a mirage we call the world reappears as it was before, but now you know. That’s why you usually have a good laugh, because you realize that all your struggles were made up. You conjured them up out of nothing—with a thought that was linked to another thought, that was then believed, that linked to another thought that was then believed. But never could it have been true, not for a second could it have actually existed. Not ever could you have actually suffered for a reason that was true—only through an imagination, good, bad, indifferent. The intricacies of spiritual philosophy and theologies are just a thought within Emptiness.


And so at times we talk, and I pretend to take your struggles seriously, just as I pretended to take my own seriously. You may pretend to take your own struggles seriously from time to time, and although we pretend, we really shouldn’t forget that we are pretending, that we are making up the content of our experience; we are making up the little dramas of our lives. We are making up whether we need to hold on or surrender or figure it out or pray to God or be purified or have karma cleansed—it’s all a thought. We just collude in this ridiculous charade of an illusion pretending that it’s real, only to reveal that it’s not. There is no karma. There is nothing really to purify. There’s no problem. There is only what you create and believe to be so. And if you like it that way, have at it!


But we cannot continue this absolute farce indefinitely. We cannot continue to pretend this game we play, indefinitely. It’s impossible. Everything comes back to nothing.


And then it’s a bit harder to hold a straight face consistently for the rest of your life.



          ~ A talk from Adyashanti
                      Transcribed from a talk in Pacific Grove, CA, June 9, 2006.
                                   
                                  http://www.adyashanti.org/index.php?file=home

Nothing Happening Here

AND SO


there is only One

all else is illusion

construction in mind

there is nothing happening here

there is only

One Being Awareness

stillness silence perfection

and in the stillness

a breathing perhaps

as if

there is only One breathing


and all this is that breathing

all this is That

we are That

we are that One


yet not -

not even we are One

because there is no we

only One



nothing happening here

despite what it seems

nothing matters

still

the One breathing

is an Outpouring of

pure blazing compassion

love   forgiveness   beauty   gift


and I find that I am not

who I thought I was

what I have called 'myself'

is nothing - is an idea is

an accretion of memories

attributes patterns thoughts

inheritances habits ideas

which I can look at and say


not I

I am not this

as myself I simply

am not

no self no me has ever existed -

illusion

fabrication

there is nothing happening


nobody here

there is only One

breathing


That is what I - is


I Am That

And That is All

and That is the Brilliance

which all this is -

life death love anguish

compassion understanding healing

light

the Brilliance within

where the Heart opens and there is

Nothing no self no one

only aching beauty

and overwhelming gratitude


Outpouring


        ~ from Perfect Brilliant Stillness by David Carse

Leaving The Present Moment

Leaving The Present Moment

We humans are in some difficulty because we don't know how to stop thinking. Isn't that true? How many people can stop thinking and just be here in silence and Presence? And if you cannot stop thinking, then you cannot be present, for all thinking takes you into the mind.

There is nothing wrong with thinking. There is nothing wrong with entering the world of the mind, as long as you know that you are entering a world of illusion, and you know that only the present moment is the truth of life. Then you can play in the world of time, with your thoughts, memories, and imaginings. Enjoy yourself, but be careful! It is easy to get lost there.

If you identify with any of it, or take any of it too seriously, you will separate yourself from the present moment and the truth of life. You will be abandoning God, love, truth, and the present moment for the illusory world of the mind, filled with distorted memories and false promises.

 
From an excerpt from the book, Journey into Now

by Leonard Jacobson
http://www.leonardjacobson.com/blog/

Maharaj - on suffering

Question:
How is it that the question 'Who am I' attracts me little?

Maharaj:
If you have no problem of suffering and release from suffering, you will not find the energy and persistence needed for self-enquiry.  You cannot manufacture a crisis.  It must be genuine.

Question:
How does a genuine crisis happen?

Maharaj:
It happens every moment, but you are not alert enough.  A shadow on your neighbor's face, the immense and all-pervading sorrow of existence is a constant factor in your life, but you refuse to take notice.  You suffer and see others suffer, but you don't respond.

Question:
What you say is true, but what can I do about it?  Such indeed is the situation.  My helplessness and dullness are a part of it.

Maharaj:
Good enough.  Look at yourself steadily -- it is enough.  The door that locks you in, is also the door that lets you out.  The 'I am' is the door.  Stay at it until it opens.  As a matter of fact, it is open, only you are not at it.  You are waiting at the non-existent painted doors, which will never open.

From ""I am That"



Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj,

Dreaming Your Existence

Paramhansa Yogananda:

 "Give to God not only the good that you do, but also the bad. I do not mean that you should deliberately do things that are wrong. But when you cannot help yourself, because of habits that are too strong, tell your mind that God is performing those actions through you...

It is He, after all, who has dreamed your existence. You have merely hypnotized yourself with the thought of your weaknesses. If you make the Lord responsible for them, it will help you to break the false hold they have on your imagination. You'll find it easier, then, to recognize in yourself the perfect image of God."

Arising from the same One Source

What if one day?

What if one day I say I am a Buddhist,

The next day I say I am a Christian,

The next I say I am a Hindu,

The next day a Jew,

The next a Muslim,

And the next day something else?

Has the "I" actually changed,

Or only the opinions of the mind?

Who am "I"?

That is not answered by mere opinions of the mind.

 

The answer is only in still and silence . . .

 

. . . beyond the opinions of the mind.

 

In stillness and silence all divisions disappear.

 

May all humans one day see. . .

 

. . . that we are all of the same One Source.

 

What if one day . . . ?

 

 

~ Swami Jnaneshvara

http://www.swamij.com/swamijnaneshvara.htm

"I am"

The Sense "I am"

When I met my Guru, he told me: "You are not what you take yourself

to be. Find out what you are. Watch the sense 'I am', find your real

Self." I obeyed him, because I trusted him. I did as he told me. All

my spare time I would spend looking at myself in silence. And what a

difference it made, and how soon!


My teacher told me to hold on to the sense 'I am' tenaciously and not

to swerve from it even for a moment. I did my best to follow his

advice and in a comparatively short time I realized within myself the

truth of his teaching. All I did was to remember his teaching, his

face, his words constantly. This brought an end to the mind; in the

stillness of the mind I saw myself as I am -- unbound.


I simply followed (my teacher's) instruction which was to focus the

mind on pure being 'I am', and stay in it. I used to sit for hours

together, with nothing but the 'I am' in my mind and soon peace and

joy and a deep all-embracing love became my normal state. In it all

disappeared -- myself, my Guru, the life I lived, the world around

me. Only peace remained and unfathomable silence.


My Guru ordered me to attend to the sense 'I am' and to give

attention to nothing else. I just obeyed. I did not follow any

particular course of breathing, or meditation, or study of

scriptures. Whatever happened, I would turn away my attention from it

and remain with the sense 'I am', it may look too simple, even crude.

My only reason for doing it was that my Guru told me so. Yet it

worked! Obedience is a powerful solvent of all desires and fears.

          - Nisargadatta Maharaj


"I am That"

Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj,

Published by Acorn Press

Egos - painful ridiculousness

Assuming you accept the notion that the ego is the great barrier to discovering our true nature and curing what ails us, you will eventually confront the ego of spiritual seeking. Egos are poses, beliefs about our self, which range from the ridiculous belief we are great lovers or unrecognized geniuses to the core belief that we exist. Many say that the ego of seeking is the greatest barrier to finding. There is a grain of truth in that, yet the untruth lies in trying to eliminate this ego. The ego of seeking will resolve itself at the proper time. As Ramana Maharshi says, the stick that stirs the funeral pyre is itself consumed by the fire.



I think it is often beginners on the path who torment themselves the most about the ego of seeking, and thereby threaten to short circuit their quest. In their enthusiasm for identifying egos, beginners realize they've assumed a new pose -- they are now spiritual seekers. As other egos diminish, the spiritual ego and pride grows. They determine that this ego is as illusory as the rest and must be eliminated.


That is not how the process of ego elimination works, though. We don't choose to give up or let go of egos. They wither as their painful ridiculousness causes us to turn from them and slowly cease giving them attention and life. Alternatively, egos are stripped from us when the sharp sword of psychological trauma leaves no other route of survival but the dropping of a pose in order to preserve the whole.


Yet these mistaken seekers try to let go and stop seeking in hopes of finding. They attempt to do nothing, thinking that doing nothing eliminates the ego. Of course, they don't do nothing. They imagine doing nothing -- they "do" doing nothing based on what they've read of letting go and acceptance. If they are really intelligent, they recognize they are "doing" doing nothing and really tie their selves into knots. All the while, other egos are growing to fill the vacuum. This is much ado about nothing.


You can seek without the ego of seeking. Giving up seeking doesn't mean that you stop -- only that you no longer admire the seeker. Don't be like the athlete admiring himself in the mirror. Get down to business rather than play. It is the actor seeking that is not real. Yet none of this will be revealed without trauma and tension -- without seeking. You must observe your many egos and reject that which you see as not you. This process will strip you to your essence.........Shawn Nevins