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Nonduality Highlights: Issue #3121, Sunday, March 30, 2008, Editor: Mark
Being conscious is cutting through your own melodrama and being
right here. Exist in no-mind, be empty, here now, and trust that
as a situation arises, out of you will come what is necessary to
deal with that situation including the use of your intellect when
appropriate.
Your intellect need not be constantly held on to keep reassuring
you that you know where you're at, out of fear of loss of
control.
Ultimately, when you stop identifying so much with your physical
body and with your psychological entity, that anxiety starts to
disintegrate. And you start to define yourself as in flow with
the universe; and whatever comes along - death, life, joy,
sadness - is grist for the mill of awakening.
Not this versus that but WHATEVER.
- Ram Dass, from Grist for the Mill, posted to DailyDharma
NIRVANA
1. Supreme Bliss cannot be experienced through contact of the
senses with their objects. The supreme state is that in which the
mind is annihilated through one-pointed enquiry.
2. The bliss arising from the contact of the senses with their
objects is inferior. Contact with the senseobjects is bondage;
freedom from it is liberation.
3. Attain the pure state between existence and nonexistence and
hold on to it; do not accept or reject the inner or the outer
world.
4. Depend always on that true reality between the sentient and
the inert which is the infinite space-like heart.
5. The belief in a knower and the known is called bondage. The
knower is bound by the known; he is liberated when there is
nothing to know.
6. Abandoning the ideas of seer, seen and sight along with latent
desires (vasanas) of the past, we meditate on that Self which is
the primal light that is the basis of sight.
7. We meditate on the eternal Self, the light of lights which
lies between the two ideas of existence and non-existence.
8. We meditate on that Self of consciousness, the bestower of the
fruits of all our thoughts, the illuminator of all radiant
objects and the farthest limit of all accepted objects.
9. We meditate on that immutable Self, our reality, the bliss of
which arises in the mind on account of the close contact between
the seer and the seen.
10. If one meditates on that state which comes at the end of the
waking state and the beginning of sleep, he will directly
experience undecaying bliss.
11. The rock-like state in which all thoughts are still and which
is different from the waking and dream states, is one's supreme
state.
12. Like mud in a mud pot the Supreme Lord who is existence and
space-like consciousness and bliss exists everywhere non-separate
(from things).
13. The Self shines by itself as the one boundless ocean of
consciousness agitated by waves of thought. 14. Just as the ocean
is nothing but water the entire world of things is nothing but
consciousness filling all the quarters like the infinite space.
15. Brahman and space are alike as to their invisibility,
all-pervasiveness and indestructibility, but Brahman is also
consciousness.
16. There is only the one waveless and profound ocean of pure
nectar, sweet through and through (i.e. blissful) everywhere.
17. All this is truly Brahman; all this is Atman. Do not cut up
Brahman into `I am one thing' and `this is another.' 18. As soon
as it is realised that Brahman is allpervasive and indivisible
this vast samsara is found to be the Supreme Lord.
19. One who realises that everything is Brahman truly becomes
Brahman; who would not become immortal if he were to drink
nectar?
20. If you are wise you would become this (Brahman) by such
conviction; if not, even if you are repeatedly told it would be
(useless like offerings) thrown on ashes. 21. Even if you have
known the real truth you have to practise always. Water will not
become clear by merely uttering the word kataka fruit.
22. If one has the firm conviction `I am the Supreme Self called
the undecaying Vasudeva' he is liberated; otherwise he remains
bound.
23. After eliminating everything as `not this', `not this', the
Supreme Being (lit. state) which cannot be eliminated remains.
Think `I am That' and be happy.
24. Know always that the Self is Brahman, one and whole. How can
that which is indivisible be divided into `I am the meditator'
and `the other is the object of meditation'?
25. When one thinks `I am pure consciousness' it is called
meditation and when even the idea of meditation is forgotten it
is samadhi. 26. The constant flow of mental concepts relating to
Brahman without the sense of `I' achieved through intense
practice of Self Enquiry (jnana) is what is called samprajnata
samadhi (meditation with concepts).
27. Let violent winds which characterise the end of aeons
(kalpas) blow; let all the oceans unite, let the twelve suns burn
(simultaneously), still no harm befalls one whose mind is
extinct.
28. That consciousness which is the witness of the rise and fall
of all beings; know that to be the immortal state of supreme
bliss.
29. Every moving or unmoving thing whatsoever is only an object
visualised by the mind. When the mind is annihilated duality
(i.e. multiplicity) is not perceived.
30. That which is immutable, auspicious and tranquil, that in
which this world exists, that which manifests itself as the
mutable and immutable objects - that is the sole consciousness.
31. Before discarding the slough the snake regards it as itself,
but when once it has discarded it in its hole it does not look
upon it as itself any longer.
32. He who has transcended both good and evil does not, like a
child, refrain from prohibited acts from a sense of sin, nor does
he do what is prescribed from a sense of merit.
33. Just as a statue is contained in a pillar (i.e. block) even
if it is not actually carved out, so also the world exists in
Brahman. Therefore the Supreme State is not a void.
34. Just as a pillar is said to be devoid of the statue when it
has not actually been carved out, so also Brahman is said to be
void when it is devoid of the impression of the world.
35. Just as still water may be said to contain or not contain
ripples, so also Brahman may be said to contain or not contain
the world. It is neither void nor existence.
- Chapter 10 of Yoga Vasishta Sara (The Essence of Yoga
Vasishta)
What is the means for constantly holding on to the thought `Who
am I?'
When other thoughts arise, one should not pursue them, but should
inquire: `To whom do they arise?' It does not matter how many
thoughts arise. As each thought arises, one should inquire with
diligence, "To whom has this thought arisen?." The
answer that would emerge would be "To me." Thereupon if
one inquires "Who am I?," the mind will go back to its
source; and the thought that arose will become quiescent. With
repeated practice in this manner, the mind will develop the skill
to stay in its source. When the mind that is subtle goes out
through the brain and the senseorgans, the gross names and forms
appear; when it stays in the heart, the names and forms
disappear. Not letting the mind go out, but retaining it in the
Heart is what is called "inwardness" (antarmukha).
Letting the mind go out of the Heart is known as
"externalisation" (bahir-mukha). Thus, when the mind
stays in the Heart, the `I' which is the source of all thoughts
will go, and the Self which ever exists will shine. Whatever one
does, one should do without the egoity "I." If one acts
in that way, all will appear as of the nature of Siva (God).
- Ramana Maharshi from Who Am I? (Nan Yar?)