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Nondual Highlights Issue #2126 Wednesday, April 27, 2005
"Like
dew on the tip of a blade of grass,
pleasures of the three worlds
Last only a while and then vanish.
Aspire to the never-changing supreme state of liberation --
This is the practice of Bodhisattvas."
~ From "The 37 Practices Of A Bodhisattva"
Commentary:
"In our world, we try to derive pleasure and joy from
indulging in sensual pleasures and objects. This type of joy and
pleasure is merely temporary, being attached to these external
forms will ruin you. In the first place, these so-called
pleasures are so temporary that they are not worth even being
attached to. It like life is really a dream, in our dream state
while sleeping we experience a happy moment and, being confused,
we actually perceive it as something true, real and authentic.
"The same type of attitude we carry-on while supposedly
awake during the day. We experience numerous pleasures and like
to indulge in the five senses. We then believe them to be real,
and become attached to them (and develop hatred for that which
disrupts the pleasures our five senses and mind feels).
"This is a mistake, since the nature of these external
objects and pleasures are impermanent, like an illusion or dream.
"All pleasures we derive from sensual objects will end in
suffering. If one eats something sweet and poisonous, it
definitely will be tasty and sweet to the tongue. But, it is
going to damage you after it's eaten.
"All the worldly pleasures are quite convincing and
interesting in the beginning, but in the end ignorant sentient
beings expect happiness out of attachment to sensual pleasures.
This is like if one has a skin disease, one scratches and rubs
the skin really hard so there is a temporary relief. But this is
only going to worsen the disease!! Similarly, if we go for
temporary worldly pleasures, and try really hard to get them,
then this will just cause more faults. The Buddhas and
Bodhisattvas do not expect happiness out of worldly
pleasures."
~ His Eminence Garchen Rinpoche
Rinpoche offers fine commentary on "The 37 Practices Of a Bodhisattva" on this web page:: http://www.simhas.org/teaching30.html
- posted to DailyDharma
Impatience
You may become impatient
for the fruits you expected,
seeing the approaching
end of your life
as a denial of all
investment in loss
already made.
This expectation
is like fermentation,
rotting away
your perceived
accomplishments.
You can shout
in anger
over the loss
of your fine stock
of grain in your granary,
or you can drink the results
until you are so drunk
you forget yourself.
~from Sudden Verse~ , posted to SufiMystic
In the afternoon Khanna's wife appealed to Bhagavan in writing:
"I am not learned in the scriptures and I find the method of
Self-enquiry too hard for me. I am a woman with seven children
and a lot of household cares, and it leaves me little time for
meditation. I request Bhagavan to give me some simpler and easier
method."
Bhagavan: "No learning or knowledge of scriptures is
necessary to know the Self, as no man requires a mirror to see
himself. All knowledge is required only to be given up eventually
as not-Self. Nor is household work or cares with children
necessarily an obstacle. If you can do nothing more, at least
continue saying `I, I' to yourself mentally all the time, as
advised in Who am I? Whatever work you may be doing and whether
you are sitting, standing or walking. `I' is the name of God. It
is the first and greatest of all mantras. Even OM is second to
it."
Khanna: The jiva is said to be mind plus illumination. What is it
that desires Self-realization and what is it that obstructs our
path to Self-realization? It is said that the mind obstructs and
the illumination helps.
Bhagavan: "Although we describe the jiva as mind plus the
reflected light of the Self, in actual practice, in life, you
cannot separate the two, just as, in the illustrations we used
yesterday, you can't separate cloth and whiteness in a white
cloth or fire and iron in a red-hot rod. The mind can do nothing
by itself. It emerges only with the illumination and can do no
action, good or bad, except with the illumination. But while the
illumination is always there, enabling the mind to act well or
ill, the pleasure or pain resulting from such action is not felt
by the illumination, just as when you hammer a red-hot rod, it is
not the fire but the iron that gets the hammering."
Khanna: "Is there destiny? And if what is destined to happen
will happen is there any use in prayer or effort, or should we
just remain idle?"
Bhagavan: "There are only two ways to conquer destiny or be
independent of it. One is to enquire for whom is this destiny and
discover that only the ego is bound by destiny and not the Self,
and that the ego is non-existent. The other way is to kill the
ego by completely surrendering to the Lord, by realizing one's
helplessness and saying all the time, `Not I but Thou, oh Lord!',
and giving up all sense of `I' and `mine' and leaving it to the
Lord to do what he likes with you. Surrender can never be
regarded as complete so long as the devotee wants this or that
from the Lord. True surrender is love of God for the sake of love
and nothing else, not even for the sake of salvation. In other
words, complete effacement of the ego is necessary to conquer
destiny, whether you achieve this effacement through Self-enquiry
or through bhakti-marga."
Khanna: "Are our prayers granted?"
Bhagavan: "Yes, they are granted. No thought will go in
vain. Every thought will produce its effect some time or other.
Thought-force will never go in vain.
"Every thought which genius and piety throw into the world
alters the world."
Ralph W. Emerson, posted to AlphaWorld
Come where the senses cannot get in, crossing the
invisible door. When you reach the side of the lake of
not-knowing, shed the load of yourself and dive into
the waters of infinity. At last, you will be back at
home again.
- posted to Nisargadatta
http://www.wewalk.net