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Post by Deleted on Dec 28, 2012 19:10:35 GMT -5
Q: Can I avoid this protracted battle with my mind? M: Yes, you can. Just live your life as it comes, but alertly, watchfully, allowing everything to happen as it happens, doing the natural things the natural way, suffering, rejoicing -- as life brings. This also is a way. Q: Well, then I can as well marry, have children, run a business… be happy. M: Sure. You may or may not be happy, take it in your stride. Q: Yet I want happiness. M: True happiness cannot be found in things that change and pass away. Pleasure and pain alternate inexorably. Happiness comes from the self and can be found in the self only. Find your real self (swarupa) and all else will come with it. Q: If my real self is peace and love, why is it so restless? M: It is not your real being that is restless, but its reflection in the mind appears restless because the mind is restless. It is just like the reflection of the moon in the water stirred by the wind. The wind of desire stirs the mind and the 'me', which is but a reflection of the Self in the mind, appears changeful. But these ideas of movement, of restlessness, of pleasure and pain are all in the mind. The Self stands beyond the mind, aware, but unconcerned. Q: How to reach it? M: You are the Self, here and now Leave the mind alone, stand aware and unconcerned and you will realise that to stand alert but detached, watching events come and go, is an aspect of your real nature. Thanks for posting this, b.  |
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Post by enigma on Dec 29, 2012 13:21:42 GMT -5
NOT KNOWING
My not knowing was in itself knowledge of the fact that all knowledge is ignorance, that "I do not know" is the only true statement the mind can make.
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Post by enigma on Dec 29, 2012 13:26:34 GMT -5
Existence
I am not a person in your sense of the word, though I may appear a person to you. I am that infinite ocean of consciousness in which all happens. I am also beyond all existence and cognition, pure bliss of being. There is nothing I feel separate from, hence I am all. No thing is me, so I am nothing. Life will escape, the body will die, but it will not affect me in the least. Beyond space and time I am, uncaused, uncausing, yet the very matrix of existence.
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Post by enigma on Dec 29, 2012 13:28:29 GMT -5
Spontaneity
Another thing I noticed was that I do not need to make an effort; the deed follows the thought, without delay and friction. I have also found that thoughts become self-fulfilling; things would fall in place smoothly and rightly. The main change was in the mind; it became motionless and silent, responding quickly, but not perpetuating the response. Spontaneity became a way of life, the real became natural and the natural became real. And above all, infinite affection, love, dark and quiet, radiating in all directions, embracing all, making all interesting and beautiful, significant and auspicious.
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Post by enigma on Dec 29, 2012 13:34:19 GMT -5
Waking State
All the three states (waking, sleeping, dreaming) are sleep to me. My waking state is beyond them. As I look at you, you all seem asleep, dreaming up worlds of your own. I am aware, for I imagine nothing. It is not samadhi, which is but a kind of sleep. It is just a state unaffected by the mind, free from the past and future. In your case it is distorted by desire and fear, by memories and hopes; in mine it is as it is—normal. To be a person is to be asleep.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 29, 2012 15:40:30 GMT -5
So Hum
The ‘So Hum’ Japa is incessantly going on in your pulse,
indicating ‘I am’ get in tune with it by recitation. That ‘So Hum’
energy without words is the raw material of incarnations and the
incarnations are the hoardings of the primary principle. The
primordial principle is ‘Parabrahman’; its advertisement is done by
movement, the stirrings of ‘So Hum’. By its movement it is
praising the primordial principle, that advertising material is the
‘Moolmaya’ (Primary Illusion). That incarnating principle – the
‘Moolmaya’– gives knowledge to the incarnated. -nisargadatta
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Post by Deleted on Dec 29, 2012 15:46:00 GMT -5
Manifested Brahma is the ‘I am’, whatever principle is prior to the
utterance of sound, that principle proclaims by itself. What I insist
is that you must stabilize in that state. The recitation of the mantra
‘So Hum’ must be for a very long time, it is prior to words. When
that ‘So Hum’ principle, is pleased, that principle, represented by
these words, expounds knowledge. -nisargadatta
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Post by Portto on Dec 30, 2012 11:07:34 GMT -5
"You will recognize that you have returned to your natural state by a complete absence of all desire and fear. After all, at the root of all desire and fear is the feeling of not being what you are.
On realization That which cannot change, remains. The great peace, the deep silence, the hidden beauty of reality remain. While it cannot be conveyed through words, it is waiting for you to experience for yourself."
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Post by laughter on Dec 31, 2012 11:24:24 GMT -5
On the Question of the Body:
seeker: When the body idea becomes obsessive is it not altogether wrong?
Niz: There is nothing wrong with the idea of a body or even with the idea "I am the body". But limiting oneself to only one body is a mistake. In reality, all existence, every form is my own and within my consciousness. I cannot tell what I am because words can describe only what I am not. I am, and because I am, all is. But I am beyond consciousness and, therefore, in consciousness I cannot say what I am. Yet, I am. The question 'who am I?' had no answer. No experience can answer it, for the self is beyond experience.
seeker: Still, the question 'Who amI?' must be of some use.
Niz: It has no answer in consciousness and therefore helps to go beyond consciousness.
Chapter 33 of "I AM THAT", " To See the Unreal Is Wisdom", which begins:
seeker: does a jnani die?
Niz: He is beyond life and death. What we take to be inevitable -- to be born and to die -- appears to him but a way of expressing movement in the Immovable, change in the changeless, end in the endless. To the jnani it is obvious that nothing is born and nothing dies, nothing lasts and nothing changes, all is as it is -- timelessly.
The conversation segues at one point into an exploration of time:
seeker: The fact is that here and now I am asking you: When did the feeling 'I am the body' arise? At my birth? This morning?
Niz: Now.
seeker: But I remember having it yesterday too!
Niz: The memory of yesterday is now only.
seeker: But surely I exist in time. I have a past and a future.
Niz: That is how you imagine -- now.
seeker: There must have been a beginning.
Niz: Now.
seeker: And what about ending?
Niz: What has no ebginning cannot end.
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Post by laughter on Jan 1, 2013 14:14:45 GMT -5
seeker (referring to the body): Yes, it is quite real to me -- now.
...
seeker: Like beads on a string, events follow events -- forever.
Niz: They are all strung on the basic idea "I am the body". But even this is a mental state and does not last. It comes and goes like all other states. The illusion of being the body-mind is there only because it is not investigated. Non-investigation is the thread on which all the states of mind are strung. It is like darkness in a closed room. It is there -- apparently. But when the room is opened, where does it go? It goes nowhere, because it was not there. All states of mind, all names and forms of existence are rooted in non-inquiry, non-investigation, in imagination and credulity. It is right to say 'I am', but to say 'I am this,' I am that,' is a sign of not inquiring, of not examining, of mental weakness or lethargy.
seeker: If all is light, how did darkness arise? How can there be darkness in the midst of likght?
Niz: There is no darkness in the midst of light. Self-forgetfulness is the darkness. When we are absorbed in other things, in the non-self, we forget the self. There is nothing unnatural about it. But, why forget the self through excess of attachment? Wisdom lies in never forgetting the self as the ever-present source of both the experiencer and his experience.
seeker: In my present state, the 'I am the body' idea comes spontaneously, while the 'I am pure being' idea must be imposed on the mind as something true, but not experienced.
Niz: Yes, sadhana (practice) consists in reminding oneself forcibly of one's pure 'being-ness', of not being anything in particular, nor a sum of particulars, nor even the totality of all particulars which make up a Universe. All exists in the mind -- even the body is an integration in the mind of a vast number of sensory perceptions and each perception is also a mental state. If you say, "I am the body", prove it.
...
Niz: When effort is needed, effort will appear. When effortlessness becomes essential, it will assert itself. You need not push life about. Just flow with it and give yourself completely to the task of the present moment, which is the dying now to the now. For living is dying. Without death life cannot be.
Get hold of the main thing: that the world and the self are one and perfect. Only your attitude is faulty and needs readjustment. This process or readjustment is what you call sadhana. You come to it by putting an end to indolence and using all your energy to clear the way for clarity and charity. But in reality these all are signs of inevitable growth. Don't be afraid, don't resist, don't delay. Be what you are. There is nothing to be afraid of. Trust and try. Experiment honestly. Give your real being a chance to shape your life. You will not regret it.
---
further excerpts from Chapter 33 of "I AM THAT", "Everything Happens by Itself"
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Post by enigma on Jan 5, 2013 17:49:48 GMT -5
There is no chaos in the world, except the
chaos which your mind creates. It is self-
created in the sense that at its very centre
is the false idea of oneself as a thing different
and separate from other things. In reality you
are not a thing, nor separate. You are the
infinite potentiality, the inexhaustible
possibility. Because you are, all can be. The
universe is but a partial manifestation of
your limitless capacity to become.
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Post by laughter on Jan 5, 2013 18:03:01 GMT -5
context is a westerner speaking of his practice of yoga, which the seeker defines as "The whole teaching of India -- evolution, karma and so on"
Niz: ... in what way do you benefit from it?
seeker: It gave me peace of mind.
Niz: Did it? Is your mind at peace? Is your search over?
seeker: No, not yet.
Niz: Naturally. There will be no end to it, because there is no such thing as peace of mind. Mind means disturbance; restlessness itself is mind. Yoga is not an atribute of the mind, nor is it a state of mind.
seeker: I did derive some measure of peace from Yoga.
Niz: Examine closely and you will see that the mind is seething with thoughts. It may go blank occasionally, but it does it for a time and reverts to its usual restlessness. A becalmed mind is not a peaceful mind.
You say you want to pacify your mind. Is he who wants to pacify the mind himself peaceful?
seeker: No. I am not at peace; I require the help of yoga.
Niz: Don't you see the contradicition? Form many years you have sought peace of mind. You could not find it because a thing that is essentially resless cannot be at peace.
seeker: There is some improvement.
Niz: The peace you claim to have found is very brittle -- any little thing can crack it. What you call peace is only absence of disturbance. It is hardly worth the name. Real peace cannot be disturbed. Can you claim a peace of mind that is unassailable?
seeker: I am striving.
Niz: Striving too is a form of restlessness.
seeker: So what remains?
Niz: The self does not need to be put to rest. It is not at peace, it is peace itself. Only the mind is restless. All it knows is reslessness, with its many modes and grades. The pleasant are considered superior and the painful are discounted. What we call progress is merely a change over from the unpleasant to the pleasant. But changes by themselves cannot bring us to the changeless, for whatever has a beginning must have an end. The real does not begin; it only reveals itself as beginningless and endless, all-pervading, all-powerful, the immovable prime mover, timelessly changeless.
seeker: So what should one do?
Niz: Through yoga you have accumulated knowledge and experience. This cannot be denied. But of what use is it all to you? Yoga means union, joining. What have you re-united, re-joined?
...
seeker: Yoga helps in the search for and the finding of the self.
Niz: You can find what you've lost, but you cannot find what you have not lost.
...
Niz: What did you expect to find?
seeker: True knowledge of the self.
Niz: True knowledge of the self is not knowledge.
....
seeker: I did attain a degree of inner peace. Am I to destroy it?
Niz: What has been attained may be lost again. Only when you realize the true peace, the peace you have never lost, that peace will remain with you, for it was never away from you.
...
seeker: Such giving up of desires -- does it need time?
Niz: If you leave it to time, millions of years will be needed. Giving up desire after desire is a lengthy process with the end never in sight.
excerpts from Chapter 34 of "I AM THAT", entitled "Mind is Restlessness Itself".
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Post by laughter on Jan 6, 2013 22:16:26 GMT -5
Niz: ... Why play with ideas? Be content with what you are sure of. And the only thing you can be sureof is 'I am.' Stay with it and reject everything else. This is yoga.
seeker: I can reject only verbally. At best I remember to repeat the formula, 'This is not me, this is not mine. I am beyond all this.'
Niz: Good enough. First verbally, then mentally and emotionally, then in action. Give attention ot the reality within you and it will come to light. It is like churning the cream for butter. Do it correctly and asiduously and the result is sure to come.
From Chapter 36 of "I AM THAT", "Killing Hurts the Killer, Not the Killed".
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Post by Beingist on Jan 6, 2013 22:32:31 GMT -5
M: Memory is in the mind. The mind continues in sleep.
Q: It is partly in abeyance.
M: But its world picture is not affected. As long as the mind is there, your body and your world are there. Your world is mind-made, subjective, enclosed within the mind, fragmentary, temporary, personal, hanging on the thread of memory.
Q: So is yours?
M: Oh no. I live in a world of realities, while yours is of imagination. Your world is personal, private, unshareable, intimately your own. Nobody can enter it, see as you see, hear as you hear, feel your emotions and think your thoughts. In your world you are truly alone, enclosed in your ever-changing dream, which you take for life. My world is an open world, common to all, accessible to all. In my world there is community, insight, love, real quality; the individual is the total, the totality -- in the individual. All are one and the One is all.
(My bold)
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Post by Beingist on Jan 6, 2013 22:37:43 GMT -5
Q: Since reality is all the time with us, what does self-realisation consist of?
M: Realisation is but the opposite of ignorance. To take the world as real and one‟s self as unreal is ignorance. The cause of sorrow. To know the self as the only reality and all else as temporal and transient is freedom, peace and joy. It is all very simple. Instead of seeing things as imagined, learn to see them as they are. It is like cleansing a mirror. The same mirror that shows you the world as it is, will also show you your own face. The thought 'I am' is the polishing cloth. Use it.
(my bold)
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