Saturday, March 15, 2014

Jean Klein - Silence



Silence is our real nature. What we are fundamentally,
is only silence. Silence is free from beginning and
end. It was before the beginning of all things. It is
causeless. Its greatness lies in the fact that it
simply is. In silence all objects have their home
ground. It is the light that gives objects their shape
and form. All movement, all activity is harmonized by
silence.Silence has no opposite in noise. It is beyond
positive and negative. Silence dissolves all objects.
It is not related to any counterpart which belongs to
the mind. Silence has nothing to do with mind. It
cannot be defined but it can be felt directly because
it is our nearness. Silence is freedom without
restriction or center. It is our wholeness, neither
inside nor outside the body. Silence is joyful, not
pleasurable. It is not psychological. It is feeling
without a feeler. Silence needs no intermediary.
Silence is holy. It is healing. There is no fear in
silence. Silence is autonomous like love and beauty.
It is untouched by time. Silence is meditation, free
from any intention, free from anyone who meditates.
Silence is the absence of oneself. Or rather, silence
is the absence of absence. Sound which comes from
silence is music. All activity is creative when it
comes from silence. It is constantly a new beginning.
Silence precedes speech and poetry and music and all
art. Silence is the home ground of all creative
activity. What is truly creative is the word, is
Truth. Silence is the word. Silence is Truth.The one
established in silence lives in constant offering, in
prayer without asking, in thankfulness, in continual
love. "



Rupert Spira - Is The World Within You


Is The World Within You

Question:

What is meant by ‘the world is within you?’ I think you are referring to that when you said, "Allow everything to take shape, evolve and disappear in you!”

Rupert: The phrase, ‘The world is within you,’ is said to one who believes that the world is ‘outside’ of him or herself.And in order to believe that the world is ‘outside’ one must first consider him or herself to be an individual entity,separate from the world.

In other words, this is said to the apparent one who believes in ‘duality,’ in the existence of an entity here the subject,‘I,’ and an entity there, the object, that is, the ‘other’ or ‘world.’

However, if we look towards our self, this ‘I,’ that apparently knows or experiences the ‘world,’ we do not find any objective qualities. However, what we find is undoubtedly present and knowing (in the sense of ‘experiencing’).

That is, we find Knowing Presence.

And what is it that finds or recognises this Knowing Presence? Whatever it is, is both knowing and present. That is, this Knowing Presence knows itself.

Having seen clearly that we are this Knowing Presence that cannot be found as an object, it becomes clear at the same time that it cannot be located either in or as the body.

So instead of thinking, “I, the body/mind, experiences the world,” we realise that “I, Knowing Presence, experiences the body/mind/world.”

Now if we look closely at the experience of the body/mind/world we find that it is made only of sensations, thoughts and perceptions and that all sensations, thoughts and perceptions are inseparable from Knowing Presence.

We have already seen from our own intimate, direct experience that there is no boundary to Knowing Presence and we therefore have no experience of anything outside of it.

At this point it becomes clear that the world, that is, the current perception, appears
within Knowing Presence and hence the saying, “The world is within you.”

Up to this point the phrase, “The world is within you,” is true and replaces the less true belief that the world is outside us.

However, although it is true in relation to the previous position in which the world was considered to be outside, it is found, on looking more deeply at our experience, to be untrue.

Although the world may be felt to appear within us, there is still a distinction between the world made of perceptions and the Knowing Presence in which it appears. In other words, there is still a subtle duality.

However, if we go deeply into the actual experience of these perceptions, we find no substance there other than Knowing Presence itself.

At this point, the phrase, ‘The world is within you,’ is seen to be limiting and can be abandoned.

It becomes clear that it was a mistake to start with the world and to think of it arising in Knowing Presence. We only started there because of the initial presumption that the world is outside and we wanted to meet that presumption on its own terms.

In reality, there is nothing else in the experience of the world other than Knowing Presence itself and Knowing Presence does not arise within itself. It is already fully present as itself with no separate parts capable of arising or disappearing within it.

So we start with Knowing Presence which is our primary, and in fact our only experience, and see that it is this Knowing Presence that ‘takes the shape of’ perceiving and, as a result, seems to become a world, but in fact never becomes anything other than itself, just as the screen we are looking at now seems to take the shape of numerous documents and
images but in fact always simply remains the screen.

And what is it that experiences Knowing Presence seemingly taking the shape of all experience? Knowing Presence!

That is, it is Knowing Presence that is always only ever knowing and being itself, and all seeming things, objects, others and worlds are simply modulations of this Knowingbeing.

At this point it is seen clearly that there is not one thing (a world) within another thing (myself) but rather that there is just Knowingbeing, with no inside, no outside, no object, no world, no other, no self.

There is just itself knowingbeing itself.

Even this formulation is not completely accurate and as the mind searches for a word or a phrase that would adequately express the nature of experience it dissolves in the impossibility of the task. It is like a candle that burns itself out.

And all that is left is Knowingbeing knowing and being Knowingbeing eternally, taking the shape of all seeming things, objects, others, selves and worlds but never knowing or
being anything other than itself
.


Friday, March 14, 2014

Rumi - ♥



I was you
and never knew it.




Lynn Ungar - Boundaries


Boundaries

The universe does not
revolve around you.
The stars and planets spinning
through the ballroom of space
dance with one another
quite outside of your small life.
You cannot hold gravity
or seasons; even air and water
inevitably evade your grasp.
Why not, then, let go?

You could move through time
like a shark through water,
neither restless or ceasing,
absorbed in and absorbing
the native element.
Why pretend you can do otherwise?
The world comes in at every pore,
mixes in your blood before
breath releases you into
the world again.  Did you think
the fragile boundary of your skin
could build a wall?

Listen.  Every molecule is humming
its particular pitch.
Of course you are a symphony.
Whose tune do you think
the planets are singing
as they dance?

~ Lynn Ungar ~
   
                           (Blessing the Bread)                                

Zen Master Yuansou - Zen Mind


Zen Mind

The mind of people of the Way is straight as a bowstring. Simply
because they are not burdened by ideas of others and themselves,
of right and wrong, of sacred and profane, of better and worse, or
by deception, falsehood, flattery, or deviousness, they spontaneously
gain access to the substance of mind that dwells on nothing.

Fundamentally this is not another, not oneself, not ordinary, not
holy, not mind, not Buddha, not a thing, not Zen, not Tao, not a
mystery,not a marvel.

It is only because of a moment of subjectivity in discrimination,
grasping and rejecting, that so many horns are suddenly produced on
your head and you are turned about by those myriad objects all the
time, unable to be free and independent.

 



Zen Master Yuansou
'Zen Essence' Translated and Edited by Thomas Cleary

Thursday, March 13, 2014

Ramana Maharshi - On scriptures


The scriptures serve to indicate the existence of the Higher Power or Self and to point the way to It. That is their essential purpose. Apart from that they are useless. However, they are voluminous, in order to be adapted to the level of development of every seeker.
As a man rises in the scale he finds the stages already attained to be only stepping stones to higher stages, until finally the goal is reached. When that happens, the goal alone remains and everything else, including the scriptures, become useless.

The intricate maze of philosophy of the various schools is said to clarify matters and to reveal the Truth, but in fact it creates confusion where none need exist. To understand anything there must be the Self. The Self is obvious, so why not remain as the Self? What need to explain the non-self?

I was indeed fortunate that I never took to it (i.e. philosophy). Had I taken to it I would probably be nowhere; but my inherent tendencies led me directly to inquire ‘Who am I?’ How fortunate!


From, The Teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi in His Own Words, Chapter 1

San Deep - I am home


I am home .......as myself.......with only myself.

I don't have any company...... never had.......never will.

I don't come and go………. nor do I stay where I am.

There is no seeking……. because there is nothing which…

…. I am not.... already......

.....nowhere.......where I am not already.

I can't get away from anything…

…. because anything I would want to get away to…….. is only myself.

I can't get anything…….. because all I could get is myself……

…. and I already am myself.

I pretend the dynamics of fear and desire …

….but never does this pretense........ fool.

I pretend to effect the display of actions…… words…… representations…

..and thus conjure up out of myself....

....conceptualized objectified beings …both animate and inanimate…

....through which the display unfolds……

… the objects themselves being nuances of the display out of the pretense.

Nothing of the conjured up display…..captures.

For I am the very transcendence.......... of my own immanence.

The seemingly interest, engagement and the resultant relating....

....with each nuance of the conjured display....

... is an aspect of the dramatized dreamed up display....

…is an aspect of the dreaming pretense.

Nothing more.

Nothing less.



Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Eckhart Tolle - Not from the mind


"Once you have disidentified from your mind, whether you are right or wrong makes no difference to your sense of self at all, so the forcefully compulsive and deeply unconscious need to be right, which is a form of violence, will no longer be there. You can state clearly and firmly how you feel or what you think, but there will be no aggressiveness or defensiveness about it. Your sense of self is then derived from a deeper and truer place within yourself, not from the mind."

Eckhart Tolle, Practicing the Power Of Now


Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Hafiz - Dance, Dervish Dance




Bring the face of god before you.
only love can lift the heart up so high
that its true color is restored by the sun!
see him near and clapping,
that perfect one who fathers divine rhythm.


o dance, dervish dance,


and know you bring your master happiness
whenever you smile.
last night so many tears took flight
because of joy that the sky god crowded and complained
when i discovered god hiding again in my heart
and i could not cease to celebrate.





Monday, March 10, 2014

Jiddu Krishnamurti - Authority


Having realized that we can depend on no outside authority in bringing about a total revolution within the structure of our own psyche, there is the immensely greater difficulty of rejecting our own inward authority, the authority of our own particular little experiences and accumulated opinions, knowledge, ideas and ideals. You had an experience yesterday which taught you something and what it taught you becomes a new authority - and that authority of yesterday is as destructive as the authority of a thousand years. To understand ourselves needs no authority either of yesterday or of a thousand years because we are living things, always moving, flowing, never resting. When we look at ourselves with the dead authority of yesterday, we will fail to understand the living movement and the beauty and quality of that movement.
To be free of all authority, of your own and that of another, is to die to everything of yesterday, so that your mind is always fresh, always young, innocent, full of vigour and passion. It is only in that state that one learns and observes. And for this a great deal of awareness is required, actual awareness of what is going on inside yourself, without correcting it or telling it what it should or should not be, because the moment you correct it you have established another authority, a censor.

Sunday, March 9, 2014

Papaji - Surrender, let Silence have you.


Surrender, let Silence have you.

Surrender to the source,
Surrender to awareness,
this is the only place of protection.

Surrender your heart and you will know all.
Surrender to Consciousness and Bliss.
Surrender means to surrender your bondage
and to simply be Freedom.

Surrender is the ego bowing down to its Source.
No more demands or commands,
but putting all in the hands of Source.

Submit to Consciousness and Bliss
and you will be happy.

Surrender the addiction to your senses.
You don't need to stop them,
but you need to have perfect control over them.

Ego is a poor driver of these five horses,
but the Atman charioteer will not make a mistake.
Surrender the reigns of your senses to the Atman.

As the river surrenders to the ocean,
surrender yourself to the Self, the Source.

And if you find you are still swimming
on the surface of the ocean:
stop swimming and you will sink into the depths of Love.


Ilchi Lee - Breathing


Observe your own body. It breathes.

You breathe when you are asleep,
when you are no longer conscious
of your own ideas of self-identity.
Who, then, is breathing?

The collection of information
that you mistakenly think is you
is not the protagonist
in this drama called the breath.
In fact, you are not breathing;
breath is naturally happening to you.

You can purposely end your own life,
but you cannot purposely keep your own life going.
The expression, 'my life' is actually an oxymoron,
a result of ignorance and mistaken assumption.

You don't possess life;
life expresses itself through you.
Your body is a flower that life let bloom,
a phenomenon created by life.


Ilchi Lee  YouTube

Ali ibn Abi Talib - If only you reflect


Your sickness is from you,
But you do not perceive it,
And your remedy is within you,
But you do not sense it.

You presume you are a small entity,
But within you is enfolded the entire universe,
You are indeed the evident book,
By whose alphabet the hidden become manifest.

Therefore you have no need to look beyond yourselves,
What you seek is within you,
If only you reflect.  

Amir-ul-Mu’mineen Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib

About Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib Here