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#1699 - Thursday, February, 5, 2004 - Editor: Jerry
from the excellent website: Garland of Advaitic Wisdom http://www.ajati.com/index.htm:
Ramana Wisdom
( fragments - page 1 )
There is no creation in the state of Realization. When one sees the world, one does not see one's self. When one sees the Self the world is not seen. So see the Self and realize that there has been no creation.
* * *
The wise regards the giving up of the notion "I am the body" as exhaling, self-enquiry as inhaling and abidance in the Heart as natural subsidence.
* * *
Unless you exist you cannot ask questions. So you must admit your own existence. That existence is the Self. It is already realized.
* * *
Being what one already is, is effortless, since being is always present and always experienced.
* * *
In the eye of the jnani there are no others, so there is nothing like mingling with others for him.
* * *
There is nothing nor is there anyone to become enlightened since the Self is already realized.
* * *
Your duty is to be and not to be this or that. The method is summarized in "Be still".
* * *
There is no teacher nor is there anyone to be taught, therefore there is no teaching.
* * *
Consciousness is
always Self-Consciousness.
If you are consciousness of anything, you are essentially
conscious of yourself.
* * *
The Absolute is always with you, in you and you are yourself the Absolute.
* * *
Where is becoming?
The thinker is all the while the same as the Real.
He ultimately realizes that fact.
Daily Dharma
"To develop
patience, you need someone who willfully hurts you. Such people
give us real opportunities to practice tolerance. They test our
inner strenght in a way that even our guru cannot. Basically,
patience protects us from being discouraged."
...
"True compassion is not just an emotional response but a
firm commitement founded on reason. Therefore, a truly
compassionate attitude toward others does not change even if they
behave negatively. Through universal altruism, you develop a
feeling of responsibility for others: the wish to help them
actively overcome their problems." ~His Holiness the
Fourteenth Dalai Lama
From the book, "The Path to Tranquility, Daily Wisdom," published by Penguin. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0140196129/Angelinc
Ben Hassine Awakened Awareness
Bernadette
Roberts - What is Self
The Thin Line between Self and No-Self
from "What is Self" by Bernadette Roberts.
- published by Mary Botsford Green, - Austin, Texas
The moment the line dissolves is unknown; it happens in great
stillness and is not an experience. No event could be less
spectacular or more momentous. In the strict sense this event is
not a milestone of the journey; instead, it is the true end or
ending of the journey. The events beyond this line are not meant
for this world and have nothing to do with it; no-self or
no-consciousness is not the true human condition, nor is the
dimension beyond self comparable to the unitive state. What
characterizes the unitive state is the love, charity and
compassion of egoless giving and living, but what characterizes
the no-self condition is knowledge of ultimate Truth as it lies
beyond all self; This is its sole purpose, revelation and
concern.
If, following this event, the particular destiny is not to remain
in this world, then man dies and moves directly to his ultimate
destiny. But if one is destined to remain in this world, the
senses must go through the ordeal of staying awake to this world
without self or consciousness. Few people realize what a
difficult feat it is for the senses to stay awake without
consciousness or without the experience of a functioning mind and
experience of self. This is a choiceless feat, a happening beyond
the efforts and choice of any consciousness or self. For this
reason the dimension beyond self has about it an air of the
miraculous. But the dissolution of the fine line (self-
awareness), or the suspension of the reflexive mechanism of the
mind, is only the first of two steps in the no-self experience.
Another step is needed if the condition is to become permanent.
Initially the suspension of the reflexive mechanism of the mind
is similar to ecstasy, which is a temporary suspension of the
entire self-experience. But ecstasy is not a permanent state; it
is purely relative to the self-experience, and thus as a relative
experience there is always a return to the former condition. This
means that for the no-self condition to become permanent, a more
definitive ending is required, another step which, paradoxically,
is also the ending of the ecstatic state. (Once the ecstatic
state becomes permanent there is no longer the possibility or
potential for ecstasy.)But here is the second step.
About a week after the line dissolved, when the mind deliberately
tried to look within, instantly the divine Center (the living
flame) quietly exploded and vanished. The sensation was a sudden
"drop." After this it is never again possible to look
within; not only will the mind no longer function in this
reflexive manner, but without a Center there is no
"within" anymore. And without a "within"
there is no vessel to experience any emptiness; simply put, there
is nothing left to BE empty. It should be remembered that the
divine Center was the experience of "life",
"being", "existence" which, in the unitive
state, is equally the experience of our own existence and God's
existence. Without this unitive Center there is no experience of
life, being or existence, nor any of the movement and feeling to
which this Center gives rise. Obviously this Center has only been
the unconscious "Self" responsible for all experiences
of interiority - the whole psyche and its spiritual life- along
with it various experiences of energy, emotions, feelings and so
on. From now on the eyes (sensory eyes) can only look outward
because without consciousness there is no ability to look inward
anymore. Without consciousness there are no interior experiences,
divine phenomenal, no within or without - no psychic life at all.
It is all over, finished
Jan Barendrecht
NDS
Does a mango get tastier when
knowing its content?
When eating mangoes, does discussing the various types of fiber
improve digestion?
Does the mind disappear when somebody says there isn't one?
Will the mind reappear when a second opinion, that mind exists,
is more convincing?
Does the quality of enlightenment extend to the intestinal
content?
If no, where is the borderline?
If a dog has buddha nature, so have the dog's intestinal
parasites?
Just questions, no answer.
THE WAY THINGS ARE:
CONVERSATIONS WITH HUSTON SMITH ON THE SPIRITUAL LIFE
Edited by Phil Cousineau
University of California Press, 315 pages, $24.95
Huston Smith points his
fingers at the moon
http://ncronline.org/NCR_Online/archives2/2004a/020604/ss020604i.htm
(Contributed by Mary Bianco)
Religion scholar argues the West needs to revive a sense of transcendence
Reviewed by RICH HEFFERN
Huston Smith is firmly convinced
that religion matters, that the wisdom of our spiritual
traditions provides the essential map and compass that will
enable us to navigate safely though the shoals and reefs lurking
in the waters of this new century. Religion’s preeminent
regard for transcendence provides essential nutrients for the
human spirit and the human enterprise.
...
“Religion for me is the search for the Real, and the effort
to approximate one’s life to it,” Smith says.
...
“It was just thrilling to me to discover that there
are still people on our planet who think there are things so
sacred that they could be profaned by the presence of
outsiders.”
...
“I have been approaching Christianity this time as if
it were a foreign religion like the others I have encountered,
which in many ways traditional Christianity is in our modern,
secular age. … Approaching it this way strips away many
stereotypes. I’m finding that in its depths, St. Augustine,
Dionysius, Meister Eckhart -- not the third-grade Christianity
one hears from most pulpits -- this new (to me) Christianity is
more interesting than that of my childhood.”
...
Smith takes religious yearnings seriously. Indeed, he feels they
are the most essential part of our human makeup, yet the ones
that are the least satisfied by our modernist cultural milieu. He
quotes Mother Teresa, who lamented the “desperate material
poverty in India, desperate spiritual poverty in the West.”
Read the entire article here: http://ncronline.org/NCR_Online/archives2/2004a/020604/ss020604i.htm
The Other Syntax
Saving and Using Energy 2
"Warriors take strategic inventories," he
said. "They list
everything they do. Then they decide which of those things
can be
changed in order to allow themselves a respite, in terms of
expending
their energy."
I argued that their list would have to include
everything under
the sun. He patiently answered that the strategic inventory
he was
talking about covered only behavioral patterns that were not
essential to our survival and well-being.
I jumped at the opportunity to point out that
survival and well-
being were categories that could be interpreted in endless ways,
hence, there was no way of agreeing what was or was not essential
to
survival and well-being.
As I kept on talking I began to lose momentum.
Finally, I stopped
because I realized the futility of my arguments.
Petty Tyrants
THE FIRE FROM WITHIN
Carlos Castaneda