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  #1503 - Friday, July 25, 2003 - Editor: Gloria

The world does not yield to changing. By its very nature it is painful and
transient. See it as it is and divest yourself of all desire and fear. When
the world does not hold and bind you, it becomes an abode of joy and
beauty. You can be happy in the world only when you are free of it.

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

"Dragonfly" photo by Al Larus

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"Your own self is your ultimate teacher.  The outer teacher is merely a
milestone.  It is only your inner teacher that will walk with you to the
goal, for he is the goal."

"Truth is simple and open to all. Why do you complicate? Truth is loving
and lovable. It includes all, accepts all, purifies all. It is untruth that is
difficult and a source of trouble. It always wants, expects, demands.
Being false, it is empty, always in search of confirmation and
reassurance. It is afraid of and avoids enquiry. It identifies itself with
any support, however weak and momentary. Whatever it gets, it loses
and asks for more. Therefore put no faith in the conscious. Nothing you
can see, feel, or think is so. Even sin and virtue, merit and demerit are
not what they appear. Usually the bad and the good are matter of
convention and custom and are shunned or welcomed, according to how
the words are used."

~Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ANetofJewels   __________________________________________________________________

Viorica Weissman ~ MillionPaths@yahoogroups.com  

Remembering Nisargadatta Maharaj  

David Godman :

There were two periods when it was possible to question him [Nisargadatta Maharaj ] :one in the late morning and one in the evening. Translators would be available at both sessions. He encouraged people to talk during these sessions, or at least he did when I first started going to see him. Later on, he would use these sessions to give long talks on the nature of consciousness. He never sat quietly if no one had anything to say. He would actively solicit questions, but if no one wanted to talk to him, he would start talking himself. 

     I only ever had one opportunity to sit with him in complete silence and that was at the beginning of the summer monsoon. When the monsoon breaks in Bombay, usually around the end of the first week of June, there are very heavy rains that bring the city to a standstill. The storm drains are generally clogged, and for a day or so people are walking round in knee-deep water. And not just water. The sewers overflow and the animals that live in them drown. Anyone brave enough to go for a paddle would be wading through sewage, waterlogged garbage and the corpses of whatever animals had recently drowned. Public transport comes to a halt since in many places the water level is too high to drive through. 

     One afternoon two of us waded through the floodwaters to Maharaj's door. We were both staying in a cheap lodge about 200 yards away, so it wasn't that much of a trek. We scrubbed off the filth with water from a tap on the ground floor and made our way up to Maharaj's room. He seemed very surprised to see us. I think he thought that the floods would keep everyone away. He said in Marathi that there would be no session that afternoon because none of the translators would be able to make it. I assume he wanted us to leave and go home, but we both pretended that we didn't understand what he was trying to tell us. After one or two more unsuccessful attempts to persuade us to go, he gave up and sat in a corner of the room with a newspaper in front of his face so that we couldn't even look at him. I didn't care. I was just happy to be sitting in the same room as him. I sat there in absolute silence with him for over an hour and it was one of the most wonderful experiences I ever had with him. I felt an intense rock-solid silence descend on me that became deeper and deeper as the minutes passed. There was just a glow of awareness that filled me so completely, thoughts were utterly impossible. You don't realise what a monstrous imposition the mind is until you have lived without it, completely happily, completely silently, and completely effortlessly for a short period of time. For most of this time I was looking in the direction of Maharaj. Sometimes he would turn a page and glance in our direction, and when he did he still seemed to be irritated that we hadn't left. I was smiling inwardly at his annoyance because it wasn't touching me in any way. I had no self-consciousness, no embarrassment, no feeling of being an imposition. I was just resting contentedly in my own being. 

     After just over an hour of this he got up and shooed us both out. I prostrated and left. Later on, I wondered why he didn't sit in silence more often since there was clearly a very powerful quietening energy coming off him when he was silent. Ramana Maharshi said that speaking actually interrupted the flow of the silent energy he was giving out. I have often wondered if the same thing happened with Maharaj. 

Harriet: And what was your conclusion? 

David: I realised that it was not his nature to keep quiet. His teaching method was geared to arguing and talking. That's what he felt most comfortable doing. 

http://www.davidgodman.org/interviews/nis2.shtml

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Daily Dharma

  "As long as you are concerned about improving yourself,   you'll always have a self to improve.   And you will always suffer." ~Cheri Huber     From the book, "There is Nothing Wrong With You," published by Keep It Simple Books.   ~ ~ ~     "My inside, Listen to me,
the greatest spirit,
the Teacher, is near,
wake up, wake up!

Run to his feet—
he is standing close to your head right now.
You have slept for millions and millions of years.
Why not wake up this morning?"
~Kabir

From the web site,
http://www.hundredmountain.com/

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Things to Think    

Think in ways you've never thought before.
If the phone rings, think of it as carrying a message
Larger than anything you've ever heard,
Vaster than a hundred lines of Yeats.

Think that someone may bring a bear to your door,
Maybe wounded and deranged; or think that a moose
Has risen out of the lake, and he's carrying on his antlers
A child of your own whom you've never seen.

When someone knocks on the door,
Think that he's about
To give you something large: tell you you're forgiven,
Or that it's not necessary to work all the time,
Or that it's been decided that if you lie down no one will die.

~ Robert Bly ~

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