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Nonduality Highlights: Issue #3661, Sunday, September 20, 2009, Editor: Mark
It is important to realize that to identify oneself as a
meditator or a spiritual person or even a Buddhist can be another
way to get caught or lose one's true balance. This is like
carrying a raft on your head instead of using it for a vehicle to
the other shore. The purpose of meditation is not to create a new
spiritual identity, nor to become the most meditative person on
the block, who tells other people how they should live. To
practice is to let go.
- Joseph Goldstein & Jack Kornfield, from Seeking the
Heart of Wisdom, posted to DailyDharma
It must be deeply and intuitively perceived that the seeker IS
the sought. When this happens, the seeker himself has vanished.
- Ramesh Balsekar, posted to ANetofJewels
Do understand that you are destined for enlightenment. Co-operate
with your destiny, don't go against it, don't thwart it. Allow it
to fulfill itself. All you have to do is to give attention to the
obstacles created by the foolish mind.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj, posted to ANetofJewels
I gave way to delight, as mystics have for centuries when they
peeked through the curtains and discovered that this world- so
manifestly real was actually a tiny stage set constructed by the
mind. We discover abruptly that everything we accept as reality
is just social fabrications.
Timothy Leary, 1966, posted to SufiMystic
One thing is true: although the teacher cannot give the
knowledge, he can kindle the light if the oil is in the lamp.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
No one can give spiritual knowledge to another, for this is
something that is within every heart. What the teacher can do is
to kindle the light which is hidden in the heart of the disciple.
If the light is not there, it is not the fault of the teacher.
There is a verse by Hafiz in which he says, 'However great be the
teacher, he is helpless with the one whose heart is closed.' .
.. In ancient times, the disciples of the great teachers learned
by a quite different method, not an academic method or a way of
study. The way was an open heart. With perfect confidence and
trust they watched every attitude of the teacher, both towards
friends and towards people who looked at him with contempt. They
watched their teacher in times of trouble and pain, how he
endured it all. They said how patient and wise he had been in
discussing with those who did not understand, answering everyone
gently in his own language. He showed the mother-spirit, the
father-spirit, the brother-spirit, the child-spirit, the
friend-spirit, forgiving kindness, an ever-tolerant nature,
respect for the aged, compassion for all, the thorough
understanding of human nature. This, also, the disciples learned,
that no discussion or books on metaphysics can ever teach all the
thoughts and philosophy that arise in the heart of man. A person
may either study for a thousand years, or he may get to the
source and see if he can touch the root of all wisdom and all
knowledge. In the center of the emblem of the Sufis there is a
heart; it is the sign that from the heart a stream rises, the
stream of divine knowledge.
Sufis have no set belief or disbelief. Divine light is the only
sustenance of their soul, and through this light they see their
path clear, and what they see in this light they believe, and
what they do not see they do not blindly believe. Yet they do not
interfere with another person's belief or disbelief, thinking
that perhaps a greater portion of light has kindled his heart,
and so he sees and believes that the Sufi cannot see or believe.
Or, perhaps a lesser portion of light has kept his sight dim and
he cannot see and believe as the Sufi believes. Therefore Sufis
leave belief and disbelief to the grade of evolution of every
individual soul. The Murshid's work is to kindle the fire of the
heart, and to light the torch of the soul of his mureed, and to
let the mureed believe and disbelieve as he chooses, while
journeying through the path of evolution.
It is not that a Murshid gives his knowledge to someone else. It
is not possible to give one's knowledge that way, so the Murshid
does not profess to be able to do this or that. His work is to
help another person to find out for himself, to discover for
himself what is true and what is not. There are no doctrines to
impart, there are no principles to lay down, and there are no
tenets according to which his pupils must order their lives. He
is just a guide along the path. He is the one who kindles the
light that is already in the pupil.
- posted to SufiMystic