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#1834 - Sunday, June 20, 2004 - Editor: Gloria
Flow with whatever may happen and let your mind be
free:
Stay centered by accepting whatever you are doing.
This is the ultimate.
~ Chuang Tzu
Having Come This Far
I've been through what my through was to be
I did what I could and couldn't
I was never sure how I would get there
I nourished an ardor for thresholds
for stepping stones and for ladders
I discovered detour and ditch
I swam in the high tides of greed
I built sandcastles to house my dreams
I survived the sunburns of love
No longer do I hunt for targets
I've climbed all the summits I need to
and I've eaten my share of lotus
Now I give praise and thanks
for what could not be avoided
and for every foolhardy choice
I cherish my wounds and their cures
and the sweet enervations of bliss
My book is an open life
I wave goodbye to the absolutes
and send my regards to infinity
I'd rather be blithe than correct
Until something transcendent turns up
I plash in my poetry puddle
and try to keep God amused
- James Broughton
from Packing up for Paradise. © Black Sparrow Press.
Gill Eardley ~ Allspirit
Therefore it is said that to know harmony is called the
constant,
and to know the constant is called illumination. To enhance life
is called auspicious; the mind mastering the energy is called
strength. This is referred to as mysterious sameness, using the
radiance and then returning to the light.
From: 'Wen Tzu - Understanding the Mysteries: Further
Teachings of Lao-tzu'
image by Bob O'Hearn http://www.1heart.us/gallery/album41/20_G
Viorica Weissman ~ Million Paths
Sri Ramana on Maya
D. What is maya? Illusion?
Bhagavan: Seeing ice without seeing that it is water is illusion, maya. Therefore saying things like killing the mind or anything like that also has no meaning, for after all mind is also part and parcel of the Self. Resting in the Self or inhering in the Self is mukti, getting rid of maya. Maya is not a separate entity. Absence of light is called darkness, so also absence of Knowledge, Illumination etc., is called ignorance, illusion or maya.
~ Crumbs from His Table
Ken Knight ~ Advaitin
The Shankaracharya said:
'……………as for the touch of Aham, the
taste of
Aham — it is a misunderstanding of the terms.
Aham and Idam (*1) constitute this creation. Aham is
Sat,
Chit and Ananda. Aham contains everything that
reflects Sat, Chit and Ananda through elements,
essences, sensations, thinking and feeling. Aham is
still, although it provides all the energies necessary
for the Idam and its multifarious forms of this
creation to exist, provides all sensations through the
elements and their qualities, and all thinking and
feeling.
To know anything, to think about anything is to know
and think of Idam. It is done by Aham. When one
experiences the beauty of vision or the essence of
form and colour or touch and taste one can do so only
from Idam. One never sees or touches or tastes the
Aham. To be Aham is to be still. One can’t touch it.
Aham is beyond experience because it is the
experiencer. The eyes see beauty, but who does really
feel the bliss of beauty? Eyes are instruments and the
real witness of beauty and bliss is the Al-tam, the
Atman, which provides the power to see. If that force
is missing eyes can’t see. They see through the light
of Atman. Same applies to all organs of senses, organs
of action and also the Antahkarana, (*2) with manas,
buddhi, chitta and ahankara. Consciousness is not
movement, Consciousness knows itself, and knows
everything through these agencies. When it knows
Itself then no Idam will be there. . It is all in
stillness. So the taste of Aham or touch of Aham is a
mistake in terms. It is existence, consciousness or
bliss itself.”
That is a clear statement of the advaitin view.
1. aham. The knower, the '
I '. / idam (idham). This.
2. anthah-karana. Inner psycho-somatic fourfold instruments of mind, intellect, memory, and ego.
manas. Feeling, mind.
buddhi. Intellect.
chittha. Mind stuff, memory, subconscious mind.
aham-kara (-kaara). Ego, self-love, selfish individuality.
James ~ Allspirit
One should love God mindlessly,
by this I mean that your soul ought to be
without mind or mental activities
or images or representations.
Bare your soul of all mind
And stay there without mind.
Moreover, I advise you
to let your own 'being you' sink away
and melt into
God's 'being God.'
In this way your 'you' and God's 'his,'
will become a completely one 'my.'
And you will come to know his changeless existence
and his Nameless being.
- Meister Eckhart
"Meditations With Meister Eckhart", Bear and Company