'Autumn' by Jeff Belyea: http://www.mindgoal.com/needgurudoyou.html
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GABRIELE EBERT
from HarshaSatsangh
Hunting the'I', 1
Dear All, Lucie Cornelssen's book Hunting the 'I' gives
many good approches to self enquiry and also good
explanations to the spiritual path in general as taught
by Ramana Maharshi.
On 2 Ramana-groups I have started to post out of Hunting
the 'I'-, so this is not new to members from there. But
I think it's worthy to be posted here also. - Comments
welcome!
First let's have a short look on who she was:
Lucie Cornelssen was born in Germany at the end of the
19th century. During the second world war the only
German book on Sri Ramana which was available was from
the Indologist Heinrich Zimmer "Der Weg zum Selbst"
which made great impression on her. She felt very much
drawn to Bhagavan and decided to utilize her linguistic
and writing talents (she was a professional writer ) to
translate more of Sri Bhagavan's words into German.
With no Tamil teacher to help her, she spent two years
in an hermitage in a German forest. When she finally
felt able to read and understand the Tamil, she
translated some of Ramana's teaching into German.
In the Fiftieth she decided to make a pilgrimage to
Arunachala and took her manuscripts with her. She laid
the manuscript on Bhagavan's samadhi. Soon afterwards a
German publisher was interested in and the book came
out. She spent several months living alone in a small
shrine near the Pradakshina road, a few miles from the
Ashram spending her time with sadhana. Later she stayed
near Ramanashram and was a well known figure there.
Besides a short Ramana-Biography and translations of the
Talks in German she wrote "Hunting the 'I', which
appeared in English and German edition. Here she also
gives some practical advice and explanations on self
inquiry.
in Sri Ramana
Gabriele
******************
This pure be-ing 'I am' is the first glimpse of the real
'I', the Self, which is by nature Pure Consciousness.
When your attention is keen, then you will discover
simultanously that there is not now and never has been
a wrong 'I'. It has always been the same 'real I', only
your mind has covered it up with the idea which it has
about your 'person'.
There are other opportunities, when we could experience
this pure 'I' consciously. One such is during the tiny
gap between two thoughts, when the attention has given
up its hold on one thought and not yet caught the next
one. But since we never tried our attention is not
trained this way, and we will hardly succeed in the
attempt.
There is a better chance to catch it between sleeping
and awaking. It is very important to try it, if you are
serious in your hunting the 'I'. Take care of a few
conditions: Try at night just before you fall asleep to
keep as the last thought your intention to catch as the
first thing of all on waking in the morning the
experience of your true 'I'.
Another condition: You should take care not to awaken
too abruptly such as by an alarm clock, and also not to
jump headlong into your daily morning routine. The
moment you awake, don't stir, but remember your
intention from last night.
You will succeed after a few attempts. And what is
possible once even for a moment can be extended by
practice.
This experiment gives you the advantage that you now
know the aim of your endeavour. It will help you in
your further sadhana like leavening in the dough.
Lucy Cornelssen: Hunting the 'I', p. 25f
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FRANCES HUNTER
from Daily Dharma
"It is essential to learn to confront the less pleasant
aspects of existence. Our job as meditators is to learn
to be patient with ourselves, to see ourselves in an
unbiased way, complete with all our sorrows and
inadequacies. We have to learn to be kind to ourselves.
In the long run, avoiding unpleasantness is a very
unkind thing to do to yourself. Paradoxically, kindness
entails confronting unpleasantness when it arises. One
popular human strategy for dealing with difficulty is
autosuggestion: when something nasty pops up, you
convince yourself it is pleasant rather than unpleasant.
The Buddha's tactic is quite the reverse. Rather than
hide it or disguise it, the Buddha's teaching urges you
to examine it to death. Buddhism advises you not to
implant feelings that you don't really have or avoid
feelings that you do have. If you are miserable you are
miserable; this is the reality, that is what is
happening, so confront that. Look it square in the eye
without flinching. When you are having a bad time,
examine the badness, observe it mindfully, study the
phenomenon and learn its mechanics. The way out of a
trap is to study the trap itself, learn how it is built.
You do this by taking the thing apart piece by piece.
The trap can't trap you if it has been taken to pieces.
The result is freedom."
--by H. Gunaratana Mahathera.
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DAVID BOZZI
from various lists
Is it hard?
Such a futile question
if pertaining to Picasso
and translated as,
“Is dipping a brush in a puddle of paint
and stroking it upon canvas hard?”
Or equally translated as asking Beethoven,
“Is it hard to take your finger and strike
a keyboard pad...?”
Why ask the carpenter
if banging a nail
requires skill?
Why ask the master chef
if mixing one edible ingredient
with another
in and of itself is hard?
Such a foolish question
reserved only for the fool
with the inability to
...see
...listen
...relax
...or taste
the very stuff of Life.
That in and of Itself
requires skill
far beyond the one consumed
by physical existence.
As my Master
once said to me
with regard to music
for instance,
Not only is it as important
as how the single single note
is struck,
but also is the space between the next one
to be heard...
Such is the Wisdom of Everything
and Everything thereon after...
The only real question that
forever thereon remains is,
“Do you have the Eye to see?
the Ear to hear?
the Touch to feel?
or the the Bud to taste?”
Such represent different forms
of the only real and only Question
that have any meaning at all...
Do You have the Space
for Awareness to inquire...?
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from The Bangkok Post
Police bid to instill Buddhist principles
Anucha Charoenpo
In a bid to wipe out corruption from the country's
police force, tens of thousands of officers nationwide
will be asked to enter temples and live as monks for an
unspecified period in the hope they will see the error
of their ways.
Assistant national police chief Pol Lt-Gen Udom Charoen
said he planned to introduce the programme after
receiving many complaints from the public about officers
who had chosen not to charge influential or wealthy
suspects.
``We cannot prosecute corrupt police officers without
evidence,'' he said. ``The only thing we can do is try
to change their behaviour by encouraging them to adopt
Buddhist principles and practice meditation.''
Pol Lt-Gen Udom hoped to attract at least 20,000
officers to the programme, under which they would be
required to live in the manner of monks, rising early
for meditation and prayers, and attending daily sermons.
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Miss Tibet
What do you think?
http://www.misstibet.com./