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#1751 - Monday, March 29, 2004 - Editor: Jerry  

My latest assemblage of favorites.  

Guru Om
L,M  

    "There are various tests to which one is
subjected: they could be of the mind, of the
intellect, of the body, and so on. A number of
such tests are there. In fact, God is conducting
tests all the time; every occurrence in life is a test.
Every thought that crops up in the mind is in itself
a test to see what one's reaction will be. Hence one
must be always alert and aloof, conducting oneself
with a spirit of detachment, viewing everything as
an opportunity afforded to gain experience, to improve
oneself and go on to a higher stage."      
                                            
                                            ---Bhagavan Nityananda (1896-1961, India)          

Are you worried?  Do you have many "what if" thoughts?
You are identified with your mind, which is projecting
itself into an imaginary future situation and creating fear.
There is no way that you can cope with such a situation,
because it doesn't exist.  It's a mental phantom.
                                                         
                                            ---Eckhart Tolle (1948-present, Germany)  

    Contentment is absolutely necessary because whatever
you will be in the next state, or in the next life is whatever
unfulfilled desire that you have in the present state. 
Therefore, desire only the Infinite...                                               

--- Papaji (1910-1997, India)    

    Men seek for seclusion in the wilderness,
by the seashore or in the mountains...
But such fancies are wholly unworthy
of a philosopher, since at any moment
you choose you can retire within yourself.
Nowhere can man find a more quieter or
untroubled retreat than in his own soul;...
Avail yourself often, then, of this retirement,
and so continually renew yourself.                                              

---Marcus Aurelius (121-180 A.D., Rome, Italy)  

    As water is serene when free of ripples,
so is the mind serene when free of thought,
when it is passive and fully receptive.
When quiet, the mind reflects Reality.
When absolutely motionless, it dissolves
and only Reality remains.

                                           ---Ramesh S. Balsekar (1917-present, India)  

    Silence is the true upadesha (teaching).
It is the perfect upadesha. It is suited
only for the most advanced seeker.
Others are unable to draw full inspiration
from it, therefore they require words to
explain the truth. But truth is beyond words.
It does not admit of explanation. All that is
possible to do [by way of explanation] is to indicate it.                                              

--- Shri Ramana Maharshi (1879-1950, India)  

    Those who know do not talk.
Those who talk do not know.
       
Keep your mouth closed.
Guard your senses.
Temper your sharpness.
Simplify your problems.
Mask your brightness.
Be at one with the dust of the earth.
This is primal union.   He who has achieved this state
Is unconcerned with friends and enemies,
With good and harm, with honor and disgrace.
This therefore is the highest state of man.
       
                                            --- Lao-tzu (570-490 B.C., China)  

    Contact with the awareness of the Absolute
can come about only when the mind is
fasting, when the process of conceptualization
has utterly ceased.  When the mind feasts,
Reality disappears.  When the mind fasts,
Reality enters.                  
                                            --- Ramesh S. Balsekar (1917-present, India)  

    Whereas before you dwelt in time and paid
brief visits to the Now, have instead your dwelling
place in the Now and pay brief visits to past
and future when required to deal with the
practical aspects of your life situation.
       
                                            ---Eckhart Tolle (1948-present, Germany)  

    Only with reference to the present, can the past
and the future exist. They too, while current [in the mind],
are but the present. Trying to determine the nature of the
past and the future, ignoring the present, is like trying
to enumerate without using the number one.                                              

--- Shri Ramana Maharshi (1879-1950, India)  

    Under whatever name and form one may
worship the Absolute Reality, it would only
be a means for realizing that Perfect Being
without name and form. That alone is true
realization, wherein one knows one's true
being in relation to that Reality, and realizes
one's identity with It by being absorbed into It.                                              

--Ramana Maharishi (1879-1950, India)  

    Knowledge of God is not a future event but an
eternal fact of being.  There is no past, present
and future for it.  It is eternity itself.  It is here and
now.                                               --- Swami Krishnananda (1922-2001, India)  

    Flowers, sesame seed, bowls of fresh water,
a tuft of kusa-grass, all this alter paraphernalia is
not needed by someone who takes the teacher's
words in and honestly lives them.   Full of longing in meditation, one sinks into a joy
that is free of any impulse to act and will not
enter a human birth again.                                              

--- Lalla (14th Century North Indian mystic)  

    How many things I have no need of!                                              

---Socrates (469-399 B.C., Athens, Greece)    

Living in the Heartland of South Reen Farm  

Bare branches, winter moon,
Morning frost scattered over the hills,
Sea waves falling into light,
Cooling on the earth.  

Commonplace, around this Organic farm are the smells of home baked
bread, and tender vegetables grown from the land. It's a Homecoming to
anyone on a self-catering basis, who is attracted by the pull of
nature. The place is steeped in the Organic tradition of the ancient
ways. They are experiencing a renaissance in nutritive worth. Higher
and more in tune than chemical fertilizing. The philosophy of the Farm
if it had one would be to simply replace what was previously removed
from the soil.  

It's a wholly natural world here where the invitation is extended to
walking over the plush green Irish hills, or standing at the edge of
the land fishing in secluded quietness, And what's so lovely are the
spacious empty beaches, but for the oyster catchers padding along the
shiny wet soaked sand. Within minutes you can head up to the cliff tops
and just sit there looking out at the Ocean heaving and turning over in
rolls, to break open and spread out wide before you. Gazing back over
stone walls below some small hills are hidden lakes, lying deep in the
woodland.  

http://www.southreenfarm.com/organic-farm.htm    

dg
Daily Dharma  

"Speak tenderly to them. Let there be kindness in your face, in your
eyes, in your smile, in the warmth of your greeting. Always have a
cheerful smile. Don't only give your care, but give your heart as well."
~Mother Teresa,


What if we made that our goal today? To just speak tenderly to whomever
we encounter? Might the tenderness we give to others come back like a
loving boomerang and bop our self-hatred right in its kazoodle, cutting
loose the "mind-made manacles" we put around our heart... if we smile at
ourselves, perhaps we will not take our own victimhood so seriously.
Yes, let's be tender to others today, and to ourselves. ~dg


From personal notes.
 

Bob Rose
Meditation Society of America  

4 Months Old and Enlightened

Bette and I visited with Jordan today, and were amazed how very very
very "Here and Now" she is. Totally honest, awake and aware moment to
moment, smiling openly with love, beaming light and happiness, without
a trace of ulterior motivations, she seems to have the whole
"enlightened guru" package, minus a specific methodology to sell. And
unlike those who proclaim their "Realization", and other similar
adjectives/adverbs, she just "Is", and has no indication at all of an
urge to try to teach anyone how to be like her.

This brought and brings now thoughts to my mind of Richard Rose, whom
many consider as having been a fully Enlightened person (for instance,
Sri Sarlo has rated him with 3 Buddhas, if my memory is correct). And
yet, Mr. Rose now has Alzheimers, and my thoughts went to questions
that went in a direction of comparing Jordan's state and Mr Rose's. I
remember reading about how he just stands around and smiles alot now.
So there is a great difference in their presentations. She's just
starting to do more and more things, and from my many years in Long
Term health care, I'm sure that those with Alzheimers can be
accurately characterized as doing less and less. Ones neurological
connections have not yet connected very much, and the others neuro
network has been coming apart. And yet, this may equate to both having
a similar level of mentation. Also, I don't think that either has a
feeling/understanding/thought of their being separate from the rest of
creation....the proverbial "Not-two" state.

In any event, I'm just riffing, and wouldn't think of asking either
Jordan or Mr. Rose for directions about anything, let alone about
things dealing with consciousness evolution, but I did enjoy being
with the baby today, and am thankful she is helping me touch that
inner baby in me. And I am thankful of all the wonder-full things Mr.
Rose shared when he still presented as the Enlightened version of him.

Peace and blessings,
Bob

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