Saturday, January 30, 2016

Dada Gavand - Awareness is the Key




The Sanctuary of Silence


You cannot meet God through the mind,

nor experience the timeless through time.

Thought cannot touch the transient.

Only with freedom from thought

and from mental cravings and ambitions

does the energy become

whole, tranquil and pure.

Such inner purity and humility

will invite the hidden divinity.

The pure consolidated energy,

with its silence and fullness within,

awaits in readiness to meet the divine,

to experience that which is beyond the mind.

There across the region of time

beyond the frontiers of the mind,

within the sanctuary of silence,

resides the supreme intelligence,

your Lord, the timeless divine.



 


Dionysius the Areopagite - Treasures beyond all beauty



Lead us up beyond unknowing and light,
up to the farthest, highest peak
of mystic scripture,
where the mysteries of God's Word
lie simple, absolute and unchangeable
in the brilliant darkness of a hidden silence.
Amid the deepest shadow
they pour overwhelming light
on what is most manifest.
Amid the wholly unsensed and unseen
they completely fill our sightless minds
with treasures beyond all beauty.



from The Essential Mystics:
Selections from the World's Great Wisdom Traditions,
Edited by Andrew Harvey

Thursday, January 28, 2016

Jean Klein - Living Stillness



It is only through silent awareness
that our physical and mental nature can change. 
This change is completely spontaneous. 
If we make an effort to change we do no more than 
shift our attention from one level, from one thing, to another. 
We remain in a vicious circle. 
This only transfers energy from one point to another. 
It still leaves us oscillating between suffering and pleasure, 
each leading inevitably back to the other.
Only living stillness, stillness without someone trying to be still, 
is capable of undoing the conditioning our biological, emotional 
and psychological nature has undergone. 
There is no controller, no selector, no personality making choices. 
In choiceless living the situation is given the freedom to unfold. 
You do not grasp one aspect over another for there is nobody to grasp. 
When you understand something and live it without being stuck to the formulation, 
what you have understood dissolves in your openness. 
In this silence change takes place of its own accord,
the problem is resolved and duality ends. 
You are left in your glory where no one has understood
and nothing has been understood.




Unknown - “I Am That I Am”


“I Am That I Am”

Translation from an ancient Egyptian text carved into the doorway of a sacred place.



“I have, at last, reached MY goal,

And solved the secret of My soul.

I am THAT, to whom I prayed,

THAT, to who Iooked for aid.

I am THAT, whom I did seek.

I am MY own mountain peak.

I, upon creation look,

As a page from MY own book.

For I am the ONE, the many make,

Of substance, which form ME I take.

For ALL is ME, there are not two,

Creation is MYSELF, all through.

What I grant, unto MYSELF,

I just take, from MYSELF.

And give it to ME, the only ONE,

For I am the Father, and the Son.

What I want, I do but see,

MY wishes flowing forth from ME.

For I am the knower, and the known,

Subject, ruler and the throne.

The three in ONE, is what I am,

And hell itself is but a dam,

That I did put in MY own stream,

When in a nightmare, I did dream.

That I did dream;

That I was not the only ONE,

And thus by ME, was doubt begun,

Which ran its course, ‘til I awoke,

And found that I, with ME, did joke.

So now, that I do stand awake,

MY throne, I do surely take,

And rule MY kingdom, which is ME,

The master, through eternity.”


 As seen in Inner Directions Journal, Fall/Winter 2004







Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Jiddu Krishnamurti - Belief



Belief is not reality. 
You may believe in God, 
but your belief has no more reality 
than that of the man who does not believe in God. 
Your belief is the result of your background, 
of your religion, of your fears, 
and the nonbelief of the communist and others 
is equally the result of their conditioning. 
To find out what is true, the mind must be free from belief and nonbelief. 
I know you smile and agree, but you will still go on believing 
because it is so much more convenient, so much more respectable and safe. 
If you did not believe, you might lose your job, 
you might suddenly find that you are nobody. 
It is being free of belief that matters, 
not your smiling and agreeing in this room.

- Jiddu Krishnamurti - 
The Collected Works, Vol. VIII",294,Individual and Society



Vijnana Bhairava Tantra - Where body meets infinity.



Rivers of power flowing everywhere.
Fields of magnetism relating everything.
This is your origin. This is your lineage.

The current of creation is right here,
Coursing through subtle channels,
Animating this very form. Follow the gentle touch of life,
Soft as the footprint of an ant, As tiny sensations open to vastness.

Power sings as it flows,
Electrifies the organs of sensing,
Becomes liquid light, Nourishes your entire being.
Celebrate the boundary Where streams join the sea,
Where body meets infinity. 


 PDF Here

Rumi - What I want also wants me



When I run after what I think I want,
My days are a furnace of distress and anxiety;
If I sit in my own place of patience,
What I need flows to me,
And without any pain.
From this I understand that
What I want also wants me,
Is looking for me
And attracting me;
When it cannot attract me
Any more to go to it,
It has to come to me.
There is a great secret
In this for anyone
Who can grasp it.



Monday, January 25, 2016

Gedun Chopel’s song



It was in the early ’90s I first heard of Gedun Chopel. I was immediately fascinated by him and tried to learn all I could about him, especially after I learned that he had spent time in Sri Lanka and actually translated the Dhammapada into Tibetan from Pali, and that his life ended so tragically after the Tibetan government had jailed him. I tried so hard to learn about him that I actually struggled through Heather Stoddards book in French, which I hadn’t read since I was in college. At that time he hardly was translated much, except for his book on the Kamasutra, and that was kind of derivative. Since I was trying to learn how to translate at the time, I thought I should try to do something myself.

by Judith Amtzis

Gedun Chopel’s
song: Instructions on Practicing the Essence of Holy Dharma.



The compassionate power of the three precious abodes of refuge
Is unfailing when relied upon.
By pacifying all confused appearances of pointless samsara
Grant the blessing of turning our minds toward the holy dharma.

Whatever worldly activity you think of entering into
Has not even as much essence as a sesame seed.
Turning your mind from this brief worldly life,
Practice the essence of the holy dharma.

Youth is like a summer flower
And bright beauty a winter rainbow.
There is no longevity in human life;
Thus, practice the essence of the holy dharma.

When suffering, wishing for a way to be happy;
When happy, fearing suffering’s return.
From the abyss of hope and fear, there is no time for liberation;
Thus, practice the essence of the holy dharma.

Cherished dearly, it is the basis of sickness and disease;
Adorned with ornaments, its nature is filth.
There is no essence to this impermanent body;
Thus, practice the essence of the holy dharma.

The rich from their vantage of wealth speak of suffering;
The poor from their place of poverty cry in misery.
Every human mind has its own load of sorrow;
The abode of samsara offers no chance of happiness.

In general, all outer appearances of happiness and suffering
Are magical displays of the single mind itself.
Other than inner reflections arising from outside
Outer features come from nowhere else.

By understanding well that this is so,
When cutting through with intelligence the all-ground, the root of mind,
You actually remain in the sky of the truth of dharmata, reality itself
Beyond this mist of appearances.

Saying ‘is’, we are contriving, and
Saying ‘is not’ is contrivance itself.
Unpolluted by any such artifice
The nature of mind is perfect enlightenment.

Thoughts of ‘is’ and ‘is not’ are like ripples in water
Continuously following one after another.
When they fall apart, by letting go in the state beyond reference point
The primordial ocean of dharmadhatu is reached.

In short, appearance is mind’s magical creation, and
Mind is emptiness, with neither ground nor root.
Holding on to a self in baseless phenomena,
We wander through the realms of samsara.

When we don’t chase after appearances
But look directly at the perceiver itself
We see the inexpressible natural face
And the path to enlightenment is not long.

In this way, through the blessings of the three root deities
May we quickly resolve the emptiness of our own minds,
And from the royal seat of the primordial pure Great Perfection
Vastly benefit limitless sentient beings.
A long term student of the Dharma, I met both Holiness Pema Norbu Rinpoche and Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche in 1976, and have lived in Asia since then, primarily in Kathmandu, Nepal. On the request of Holiness Penor Rinpoche, I collaborated with Khenpo Sonam Tsewang of Namdroling Monastery in Mysore to translate the Liberation Story of Namcho Migyur Dorje, the terton who discovered the treasures that make up the core of the Palyul tradition. This biography is entitled The All-Pervading Melodious Sound of Thunder, and was written by the first Karma Chagme Rinpoche.
text  source





Jiddu Krishnamurti and Love



Love Is Dangerous

How can man live without love? We can only exist, and existence without love is control, confusion, and pain -and that is what most of us are creating. We organize for existence and we accept conflict as inevitable because our existence is a ceaseless demand for power. Surely, when we love, organization has its own place, its right place; but without love, organization becomes a nightmare, merely mechanical and efficient, like the army; but as modern society is based on mere efficiency, we have to have armies and the purpose of an army is to create war. Even in so-called peace, the more intellectually efficient we are, the more ruthless, the more brutal, the more callous we become. That is why there is confusion in the world, why bureaucracy is more and more powerful, why more and more governments are becoming totalitarian. We submit to all this as being inevitable because we live in our brains and not in our hearts, and therefore love does not exist. Love is the most dangerous and uncertain element in life; and because we do not want to be uncertain, because we do not want to be in danger, we live in the mind. A man who loves is dangerous, and we do not want to live dangerously; we want to live efficiently, we want to live merely in the framework of organization because we think organizations are going to bring order and peace in the world. Organizations have never brought order and peace. Only love, only goodwill, only mercy can bring order and peace, ultimately and therefore now.

- J. Krishnamurti, The Book of Life
read/download book at bottom of this page 


Sunday, January 24, 2016

Scott Kiloby - The Unknown



In spiritual seeking, the conceptual mind searches for meaning or release from suffering. 
Ultimately, the mind is looking for an answer to the question, “Who am I?” 
When the conceptual mind is involved in this seeking, questions beget answers, 
which beget more questions, and so forth. 
The final answers to life’s questions always appear out of reach, 
somewhere else, at some other time.

When it is seen that thought cannot solve this identity crisis, a fresh opportunity arises. 
This is not necessarily the end of thought, just the end of seeking a sense of self in it. 
The space within you that is already totally connected to this moment 
sees every attempt by the mind to “get it.” 
In that seeing, there is a falling into a vast, spacious, silent unknown.

“Non-duality” is that unknown. 
It points to the realization that no dualistic answer can solve this great mystery. 
The mind freefalls unable to land solidly on any position. 
In this freefalling, nothing needs to be solved. 
The questions die in the seeing.

It is revealed that there is only ‘This’ 
— the present play of life — 
and that this present reality is the answer. 
What joy! It is realized that the answer was always ‘This.’ 
The conceptual mind couldn’t see it. 
It was too busy looking for some future ‘This’ or some idea of ‘This.’ 
Ideas are never the actual ‘This.’ 
They are second hand knowledge.

~ From: Reflections of the One Life


Fred LaMotte - Radha Krishna



Krishna speaks:
"I have poured my entire soul into your body as this breath,
yet I remain beyond you as the still blue sky.

Radha speaks:
"I offer this breath back to you again and again, and I become that sky."

Krishna speaks:
"Without your earthly body, my love could never be expressed."

Radha speaks:
"Without your formless and unbounded silence at the center of every cell,
every atom, I would have no cause to dance and sing."

Krishna speaks:
"This garden blossoms in the air, at the end of a sigh, between earth and heaven."

Radha speaks:
"Take off your shoes and leave your footprints on my mind."

Krishna speaks:
"It is not enough to be a rose-windowed dragon fly.
It is not enough to be a serpent of nectar
dangling from the tree of knowledge.
It is not enough to cut off a baby's head
and replace it with the head of an ivory-tusked pachyderm.
It is not even sufficient to gain the intellect of a lotus blossom.
You must become a bold and whimsical Lover."

Radha speaks:
"I will be your virgin guru in the erotic art of dying."

Krishna speaks:
"Because you have returned my breath, the gift of a gift,
wherever saints and fools whisper the name of 'Radha,'
a thousand flowers will open and drop priceless diamonds
into the pool of bewilderment, where the radiant moon both is and is not."