Tuesday, August 17, 2010

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/


                 

Thursday, August 12, 2010

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

Saturday, August 7, 2010

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/

Monday, August 2, 2010

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.