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Nonduality Highlights: Issue #3941, Saturday, July 4, 2010, Editor: Mark
Questioner: In Europe there is no tradition of a mantra, except
in some contemplative orders. Of what use is it to a modern young
Westerner?
Maharaj: None, unless he is very much attracted. For him the
right procedure is to adhere to the thought that he is the ground
of all knowledge, the immutable and perennial awareness of all
that happens to the senses and the mind. If he keeps it in mind
all the time, aware and alert, he is bound to break the bounds of
non-awareness and emerge into pure life, light and love. The idea
- 'I am the witness only' will purify the body and the mind and
open the eye of wisdom. Then man goes beyond illusion and his
heart is free of all desires. Just like ice turns to water and
water to vapour, and vapour dissolves in air and disappears in
space, so does the body dissolve into pure awareness (chidakash),
then into pure being (paramakash), which is beyond all existence
and non-existence.
- Nisargadatta Majaraj, from I Am That, posted to
NondualitySalon
You are the Perceptual Center
of all your experience.
Realize This, and you will discover that
the universe is contained within
the light of your own innate
Natural Awareness, and
you are not limited by
who or what
you imagine yourself to be.
Remember: you are That which is
Seeing, Observing and Perceiving....
- Metta Zetty
In non-objective meditation, our attention is drawn towards the
non-objective, the ultimate subject, consciousness. This is
accomplished as a result of understanding. At the first stage,
the truth-seeker is asked to notice that the happiness he is
really looking for is non-objective, which means "not
contained in any object, gross or subtle". When this is
understood, he is then asked to realize that the mind, which can
only grasp mentations (thoughts and sense-perceptions), cannot
have access to the non-objective realm. It follows that any
attempt to secure the happiness he is looking for through the
mind is bound to failure. When this is understood, the mind soon
finds itself in a NATURAL state of stillness.
In this natural form of meditation, sensations or thoughts are
neither sought nor avoided; they are simply welcomed and seen
off. It could be described as a total openness, in which we are
totally open to our sense perceptions, our bodily sensations, our
emotions, our feelings and our thoughts. We could compare these
mentations with the various characters of a play. As long as we
find the play interesting, our attention is completely drawn by
the actors on the foreground, but, if there is a weak moment, our
attention progressively relaxes until we become suddenly aware of
the background, of the stage. In the same way, as our attention
becomes global, unfocused, open, disinterested, (and this
detachment follows from our understanding that these mentations
have really nothing to offer in terms of real happiness), our
attention relaxes, until we become suddenly aware of the
background, consciousness, which reveals itself as the ultimate
immortality, splendor and happiness we were looking for.
It is not necessary for the actors to leave the stage in order
for us to be aware of the background of the stage; similarly, the
absence of mentations is not a prerequisite for awareness of the
Self. However, in the same way as, when the actors leave and our
attention relaxes, we have an opportunity to become aware of the
background, there is an opportunity to "visualize" our
real nature when a mentation merges into consciousness.
- Francis Lucille
A Voice Through the Door
Sometimes you hear a voice through
the door calling you, as fish out of
water hear the waves, or a hunting
falcon hears the drum's come back.
This turning toward what you deeply
love saves you. Children fill their
shirts with rocks and carry them
around. We're not children anymore.
Read the book of your life which has
been given you. A voice comes to
your soul saying, Lift your foot;
cross over; move into the emptiness
of question and answer and question.
- Rumi, version by Coleman Barks, with Nevit Ergin, from The
Glance, posted to Sunlight
Leave God alone. Speak for yourself. You do not know God. He is
only what you think of Him. Is He apart from you? He is that Pure
Consciousness in which all ideas are formed. You are that
Consciousness.
- Ramana Maharshi, posted to Distillation