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Nondual Highlights Issue #2433, Wednesday, March 29, 2006, Editor: Mark
The body in which one can see the truth will die out, like a fan
palm,
without any future. But that which is the truth, that which is
existence itself,
is there although it is deep and infinitely hard to understand.
Like the great
ocean, one cannot fathom it.
-Digha Nikaya, from The Pocket Buddha Reader,
edited by Anne Bancroft, posted to MillionPaths
To know itself the self must be faced with its
opposite - the not-self. Desire leads to
experience. Experience leads to discrimination,
detachment, self-knowledge - liberation. And
what is liberation after all? To know that you
are beyond birth and death. By forgetting who
you are and imagining yourself a mortal
creature, you created so much trouble for
yourself that you have to wake up, like from a
bad dream.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj, from I Am That: Talks
with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, posted to
AlongTheWay
The Knowledge of the Source Emancipates One from Duality,
Division, and Disease
For a human being the intellect is his entire person - the whole
body and the world associated with it. Each person knows that he
is the body and a part of the world, and he cannot be shaken from
this staunch maanyataa or knowledge. Since all bodies are
parivartan sheel, which means changeable or prone to death, every
person subconsciously has a sensible motivation not to die and
not to change. In order to fulfil this knowledge or desire, one
schemes throughout his life to become happy, peaceful, deathless,
and unchangeable. However, it is not possible for him to achieve
the knowledge or realization of being unchangeable and deathless.
After passing through all kinds of lifestyles, he becomes
worried, unhappy, miserable, sick, and diseased; and still he
wants to know the path, technique, or knowledge that will free
him from the constant nagging of his worries.
The realized being, who appears to be the same type of human
being as everyone else, tells him that the external and internal
world, which means the body and the mind, is bhaasmaan, the
apparent, manifest reality, which seems true and permanent, and
has its source in the Self, Parmaatma, or That, Satchitaanand, or
God. Knowing that That is eternal, unborn, unmanifest, and
unchangeable, how would you remain ignorant of your truth, your
source, your freedom? How would you become the victim of
"you" - the manifest intellect and body - thereby
calling yourself a body, for this identification has created a
problem not only for you, but for all.
Therefore, if you want to be free from emotional and worried
thinking, which creates uneasiness in you, then devote your
intellect or mind to remembering your own source, the nature and
quality of which is perfect freedom. This source is hidden, as
fire is hidden in the tree; but it can be known when you think,
concentrate, or meditate, and just keep knowing that the source
is never changing or changeable. So there is no death, because it
never decreases, never changes, it is ever the same. It is called
your true Self, and it underlies the visible form of your body,
as fire underlies the body of every tree in the whole forest.
Since you are a developed being in terms of your human system and
awareness, the work of remembering starts with your vehicle, the
intellect. The knowledge of your source as deathless will dawn in
you the way you have known your name, and your body that changes
and dies. With the dawning of the knowledge of your own deathless
source, you will begin to feel totally free from the idea and
fear of death. Your source is Amaram Hum Madhuram Hum, which
means indivisible unity.
- Swami Shyam April 2000
Look at all the blind men bashing
one another with the stick of intellect!
LOVE is the sea where intellect drowns!
- Jala al-Din Rumi
And think not, you can direct the course of love; for love, if it
finds you worthy, directs your course.
- Khalil Gibran, posted to NondualitySalon