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#1650 - Thursday, December 18, 2003 - Editor: Jerry
The Other Syntax
Buddha and Jesus
"There are other
similarities in the lives of these two great
beings...Both Buddha and Christ were precocious youths who
confounded
their teachers with their gifted knowledge. Both began
their spiritual
quest at about the age of thirty. Both fasted and prayed in the
wilderness and both were tempted by the devil while practicing
these
austerities. The setting of these two accounts is almost
identical as
are the events. Both men were fasting when tempted by the
devil who
tried to entice them into worldly pleasures and trick them into
using
the magical powers that they possessed. Both men overcame
the
temptation and soon left their seclusion and took up the mission
of a
life of teaching and traveling.
Jesus's life at this
time seems very much like the age-old life of an
Indian mystic or holy man. He traveled from village to village
and lived
off the hospitality of the people of the village. There are
some
differences, but, nonetheless, both Buddha and Christ got into
trouble
with the ruling aristocracies by their deliberate blindness to
social
status and by taking food and refuge from courtesans and
prostitutes.
Both masters told their
disciples to leave behind their homes and
families and to follow him. Both sent his followers
out to preach
their message. Both were social revolutionaries who reacted
against the
conservative elements of their time. Both put an end to
animal
sacrifice which was popular in both Hinduism and Judaism.
As you can
see there are great similarities in the lives of these two great
beings.
Both forgave evil doers, both conquered death in a metaphysical
sense.
The earth shook when each of them died. Their messages are
also
similar: they told their followers to overcome anger, to
practice
non-violence, to 'turn the other cheek,' to be pure of mind and
body."
~Yvette Rosser
From a post on the list-group, alt-hindu@uunet.uu.net.
Ben Hassine
NDS
typed this from the book:The Divine Life volume I, page 85 - 89. I bought the book at Anandashram and I typed this by way of Ram Nam.
'Om Sri Ram Jai Ram Jai Jai Ram'
Bhakti
Bhakti means making God the supreme ideal of life. For the
bhakta there is no
other thought but of Him, and no other ambition but to attain
Him. His mind runs
towards God through a ceaseless flow of remembrance. The bhakta's
heart is ever
agitated with the waves of hope and aspiration for the vision of
God. His
restless nature, besides urging him to constantly in the thought
of God, directs
his steps to the feet of saints and drives him form place to
place to visit to
noted shrines. As the child away from it's mother is stricken
with anguish and
sorrow for the sight of her, so the bhakta insistently weeps with
the longing for
the darshan of God. He finds life dry and tasteless until he
meets his supreme
Beloved. The more he meditates and contemplates upon the great
attributes of God,
the more he begins to feel his own littleness and unworthiness,
and prays to his
Beloved to elevate, enlighten and purify him, so as to make him
fit to be
accepted as His child and servant.
For the bhakta, God is the very embodiment of love, compassion,
forgiveness and
grace. He visualises his God in the recesses of his own heart. He
surrenders
completely in thought, word and deed to his Beloved, and adores
Him with an
unflinching devotion. By a constant meditation of the Lord, the
bhakta imbibes
into his own being the Divine attributes, ultimately reaching a
status of perfect
union and oneness with Him. Compassion, mercy and love now
illuminate the nature
and therefore all actions of the bhakta. He becomes the very
image of God, for
the impurities and weaknesses having been removed by the grace of
the Lord, he
stands revealed as the very sun of Truth, radiating all around
him the rays of
love, kindness and peace.
Now the greatest virtue that shines forth in all its splendour in
the bhakta is
forgiveness. As God has forgiven Him, so he forgives all in the
world who wrong
or have wronged him. He ever returns good for evil both in
thought and action. He
is self-sacrificing to a degree. He is ever willing to serve and
toil for others,
to give them solace and relief. He loves all with an equal
vision, be he friend
or foe, rich or poor, good or wicked, high or low, wise or
ignorant. He endures
peacefully ignominy and persecution and gives himself away in any
away fro the
good of others. He is ever contented, ever pure and cheerful. He
is unassuming
and humble in all he does. He recognises God as all in all. He
experiences God
seated in heart as casing, by His power, all movements in the
world. He beholds
and feels God's presence everywhere. Verily, he always lives and
moves in God and
is the very being of God.
Acme of Bhakti
Bhakti is the adoration of the supreme Lord of the universe
beyond everything
else in the world. This one-pointed adoration makes the devotee
keep his mind
ever engaged in the remembrance and contemplation of the Lord.
The Divine idea
seizes the mind of the devotee to such an extent that the most
attractive objects
of life cease to interest him. He talks, laughs and often weeps
in his madness
for the Lord. As he progresses on the path of devotion he is
weaned away from the
petty and transient pleasures of the senses and remains, as it
were, dead to
them. His one passion is to see God, know God and be entirely
merged in God.
So as a result of this devotion, in the first place the devotee
is possessed with
an intense Vairagya, i.e. a steady and fixed dispassion towards
the evanescent
objects in the world. The intensity of Viaragya depends upon the
intensity of his
devotion to his Lord. A devotion which is weak and interrupted
cannot entirely
turn the mind away from the external world. Very often, a devotee
complains that,
however strong he may wish, he cannot fix his thoughts in the
continuous
remembrance of the Lord, and that his mind is wandering towards
the objects of
the senses. This is due to a lack of intensity of devotion to his
Lord. Devotion
must, therefore, be a dedication of all the powers of the mind
and of the heart
for the exclusive meditation and love of the Lord.
Devotion as rightly divided is of two kinds - the lower and the
higher. In the
lower form of devotion, the devotee looks for guidance and
concentration from
outside, and primarily attaches himself to the society of saints
who have
realised fully the greatness and glory of the Lord. To keep
himself pure in
thought, word and deed, he controls all the forces that are
working in his
physical and psychical being, and adjusts the conduct of his life
so as to free
himself from all desires of his mind. Mainly he will have
recourse to three kinds
of Sadhana, viz. Satsang, solitude and Sattwic diet. How does the
devotee now try
to tune his mind in a continuous symphony with the Lord? It must
be admitted that
every remembrance signifies bringing into mind the name and
qualities of the
person or object remembered. A prolonged remembrance means a
sustained fixity of
the thought on the name and attributes of the person or object.
For the devotee,
the Lord becomes the one great object of ceaseless remembrance,
which is attained
by an unbroken repetition of His sweet and all-powerful Name and
brining at the
same time into the mind His sublime glories and attributes.
As the devotee advances in his spiritual path, he transcend the
Tamo and Rajo
Gunas of nature and gets firmly seated in Sattwa guna. Sattwa
Guna denotes a
consciousness above the animality of human nature, filled with
calmness,
equality, light and purity. It must be understood that this
Sattwic consciousness
is a step to a still higher consciousness. The lower from of
Bhakti leads the
devotee to this most necessary step.
Now commences the higher step of devotion. Sattwa Guna entitles
the devotee to
the Grace of Lord or a saint, and through this grace he is lifted
beyond all
Gunas and comes, so to say, face to face with the immortal and
all-blissful Atman
whom he realises as his real being and existence. This is called
Jnana or Moksha.
The knowledge of the Atman liberates the bound soul from the
vicious cycle of
births and deaths, and grants him unchanging and eternal bliss
and peace. It is
then the higher Bhakti which is termed Parabhakti dawns on him.
This is the summit of God-realisation. With Jnana as the
background, the devotee
beholds the entire manifested universe as the supreme image of
his beloved Lord.
All creatures, beings and thing in the universe are looked upon
by him as the
very forms of his Lord. He feels and sees the Lord's presence
everywhere. His
sense of duality has completely vanished. Oneness of life,
oneness of all
existence becomes now the keynote of his vision. Not only in the
inner
realisation of the Atman that the sense of diversity has
disappeared but also in
the external revelations of the natural phenomena. In this
supreme state the
devotee enjoys unending and inexpressible bliss. There is no
limit to his
ecstasies born of his consciousness of unity and oneness with the
Lord. He
veritably rolls, swims and gambols in the infinite ocean of joy.
Blessed, a
million times blessed, is the devotee who reaches this highest
peak of
God-realisation.
Daily Dharma
"All things
arise,
Suffer change,
And pass away.
This is their nature.
When you know this,
Nothing perturbs you,
Nothing hurts you.
You become still.
It is easy.
Sooner or
later,
Fortune or misfortune
May befall you.
When you know this,
You desire nothing,
You grieve for nothing.
Subduing the senses,
You are happy.
Whatever you
do
Brings joy or sorrow,
Life or death.
When you know this,
You may act freely,
Without attachment.
For what is there to accomplish?
All sorrow comes from
fear.
From nothing else.
When you know this,
You become free of it,
And Desire melts away.
You become happy
And still.
The world with all its
wonders
Is nothing.
When you know this,
Desire melts away.
When you know in your heart
That there is nothing,
You are still."
~Ashtavakra Gita
From the web site, "Heart of Awareness,"
http://www.swcp.com/~robicks/gita00.htm
At a tweet retreat
hi nondual birds!
surfing parties on the beach
always in for fun
feasts at night rest in the sun
look - the ocean is a drop
one that's within reach!
--Jan Barendrecht NDS
Stephen Simon
Moving Messages Media
Hi Everyone:
This is my favorite movie time of the year because the studios
"backload" all their adult-oriented films into the last
60 days of the year to qualify for Academy Awards. As a voting
member of the Academy, I get DVD/VHS copies of films to watch at
home--and almost 30 of them have arrived just in the last 10
days. As all 4 of my daughters have made me a very happy dad
indeed by being home for Christmas, we`re having a movie marathon
over the next couple of weeks. As is my custom, I`m only going to
send out Movie Alerts on films that I really enjoy and can
heartily recommend..starting today with:
BIG FISH
Haven`t heard of it yet? You will. It`s the latest film from the
brilliantly creative mind of director Tim Burton who has become
known for brilliant but dark films such as the original BATMAN
and EDWARD SCISSORHANDS.....in BIG FISH, however, Burton`s visual
storytelling genius is directed at the lyrical, bizarre,
charming, baffling, and ultimately life-affirming story of a
great verbal storyteller.
Albert Finney plays the older version (with Ewan McGregor his
younger self) of a traveling salesman of sorts named Edward Bloom
who regales his wife, his son, and all who listen to him with
wild tales of his life on the road. As a child, his son is
enthralled with his Dad`s amazing adventures but, as he grows up,
he becomes convinced that his old man is "full of the
blarney" and they become estranged until his father is
dying. At that point, he asks his Dad to tell him the
"truth" of his life and most of the film reflects that
tale--which is, in many ways, wilder than the old stories!
To go any farther with the plot here would be foolish and
counterproductive because the film itself plays out in a
nonlinear fashion that seems, as it goes along, to be more of a
fable of our very existence in life as anything else. Metaphors
and tantalizing moments about our own humanity are much more
important here than a standard plot. For instance, one of the
experiences that our main character encounters as a child
revolves around a "witch" with a glass eye, in whose
reflection one is "allowed" to see into the future to
the moment of one`s death. Most people are terrified but young
Edward calmly asks to see his fate, after which he serenely
exclaims" OH, that`s how I go". He explains his calm
response by telling us that he now knows that he will survive
everything else that happens to him before that moment of death
so he can through life in a much calmer and more confident
manner. Which brings up a great audience question: if you could
know the moment of your own death!, would you want to know?
BIG FISH is a movie about perception...how we perceive ourselves
and the reality which we create every day...it is a movie about
"telling a story enough times that we become the
story," which is again a fascinating metaphor for creating
the reality of our own lives. The title refers both to being a
big fish in a little pond and also to the great
"apocryphal" stories about catching--in this case
actually BECOMING-- the big fish "that got away." If
that sounds a bit paradoxical, it is indeed meant to be so
because BIG FISH is a strange and unique movie with a rhythm all
its own and, as such, it is certainly not a mass-market film that
everyone will enjoy. I watched the film with 2 of my
daughters--my 23 year old loved it and my 28 year walked away
halfway through. It`s that kind of film--I sense that people will
either love it or loathe it and, for me, that`s what separates
great art in film from the run-of-the-mill fare we usually get
from the studios. If you are interested i!
n immersing yourself in the gentle, loving, fascinating and
elliptical world of a genius filmmaker, I believe you may walk
away enchanted and enthralled. I did.
The Other Syntax
There is a good attitude to take towards any
goal: It's nice if it
happens, nice if it doesn't.
Thaddeus Golas