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.

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,