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Post by Beingist on Jan 6, 2013 22:41:59 GMT -5
Q: You seem to be in favour of a computerised life.
M: What is wrong with a life which is free from problems? Personality is merely a reflection of the real. Why should not the reflection be true to the original as a matter of course, automatically? Need the person have any designs of its own? The life of which it is an expression will guide it. Once you realise that the person is merely a shadow of the reality, but not reality itself, you cease to fret and worry. You agree to be guided from within and life becomes a journey into the unknown.
(my bold)
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Post by Beingist on Jan 6, 2013 22:51:50 GMT -5
Maharaj: It is all a matter of focus. Your mind is focussed in the world, mine is focussed in reality.
M: In reality I am neither hearing nor answering. In the world of events the question happens and the answer happens. Nothing happens to me. Everything just happens.
M: That in which consciousness happens, the universal consciousness or mind, we call the ether of consciousness. All the objects of consciousness form the universe. What is beyond both, supporting both, is the supreme state, a state of utter stillness and silence. Whoever goes there, disappears. It is unreachable by words, or mind. You may call it God, or Parabrahman, or Supreme Reality, but these are names given by the mind. It is the nameless, contentless, effortless and spontaneous state, beyond being and not being.
Q: In my daily actions much goes by habit, automatically. I am aware of the general purpose, but not of each movement in detail. As my consciousness broadens and deepens, details tend to recede, leaving me free for the general trends. Does not the same happens to a jnani, but more so?
M: On the level of consciousness -- yes. In the supreme state, no. This state is entirely one and indivisible, a single solid block of reality. The only way of knowing it is to be it. The mind cannot reach it. To perceive it does not need the senses; to know it, does not need the mind.
Q: There is the witnessed consciousness and there is the witnessing consciousness. Is the second the supreme?
M: There are the two -- the person and the witness, the observer. When you see them as one, and go beyond, you are in the supreme state. It is not perceivable, because it is what makes perception possible. It is beyond being and not being. It is neither the mirror nor the image in the mirror. It is what is -- the timeless reality, unbelievably hard and solid.
M: When you believe yourself to be a person, you see persons everywhere. In reality there are no persons, only threads of memories and habits. At the moment of realisation the person ceases. Identity remains, but identity is not a person, it is inherent in the reality itself. The person has no being in itself; it is a reflection in the mind of the witness, the 'I am', which again is a mode of being.
M: Energy comes first. For everything is a form of energy. Consciousness is most differentiated in the waking state. Less so in dream. Still less in sleep. Homogeneous -- in the fourth state. Beyond is the inexpressible monolithic reality, the abode of the jnani.
(my bold)
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 8, 2013 14:50:42 GMT -5
M:….There is nobody here who is 100 years old. Does that mean that 100 years ago you did not exist?
Q: I don’t know.
M: The one who said, “I don’t know” must have been there; in short, you were not like this, but you must have been something. You must comprehend this correctly. 100 years back I was not like this; so, the one pointing this out must have been there. You did, and do, exist unto eternity.
What I am expounding does not relate to worldly knowledge or so-called spiritual knowledge, and yet, through these worldly concepts, you want to understand the riddle of your existence, and that is precisely why you are not able to understand.
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Post by enigma on Jan 9, 2013 12:24:09 GMT -5
"Be empty of all mental content, of all imagination and effort, and the very absence of obstacles will cause reality to rush in."
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Post by laughter on Jan 11, 2013 8:09:48 GMT -5
Niz: All conciousness is limited and therefore painful. At the root of conciousness lies desire, the urge to experience.
seeker: Do you mean to say that without desire there can be no consciousness? And what is the advantage of being unconscious? If I have to forego pleasure for the freedom from pain, I'd better keep both.
Niz: Beyond pain and pleasure there is bliss.
the title quote from Chapter 37 of "I AM THAT"
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Post by laughter on Jan 13, 2013 9:33:14 GMT -5
seeker: How do you come to know a state of pure being which is neither conscious or unconscious? All knowledge is in consciousness only. There may be such a state as the abeyance of the mind. Does consciousness then appear as the witness?
Niz: The witness only registers events. In the abeyance of mind, even the sense "I am" dissolves. There is no "I am" without the mind.
from Chapter 37 of "I AM THAT"
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Post by laughter on Jan 20, 2013 15:43:13 GMT -5
Q: I admit that no verbal description will do when the state described is beyond words. Yet it is also within words. Poetry is the art of putting the inexpressible into words.
Niz: There is no lack of religious poets. Turn to them for what you want. As far as I am concerned, my teaching is simple; trust me for a while and do what I tell you. If you persevere, you will find that your trust was justified.
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Post by laughter on Jan 21, 2013 13:14:02 GMT -5
seeker: If I start the practice of dismissing everything as a dream, where will it lead me?
Niz: Wherever it leads you, it will be a dream. The very idea of going beyond the dream is illusory. Why go anywhere? Just realize that you are dreaming a dream you call the world, and stop looking for ways out. The dream is not your problem. Your problem is that you like one part of your dream and not another. Love all or none of it, and stop complaining. When you have seen the dream as a dream, you have done all that needs to be done.
(para 52, dialog 29 of "I AM THAT", "Living is Life's Only Purpose")
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Post by laughter on Jan 23, 2013 6:35:50 GMT -5
from the end of Chapter 40 of "I AM THAT", "Only the Self is Real"
seeker: Thoroughout the West people are in search of something real. They turn to science which tells them a lot about matter, a little about the mind, and nothing about the nature and purpose of consciousness. To them reality is objective, outside them and observable and describable, directly or by inference; about the subjective aspect of reality they know nothing. It is extremely important to let them know that there is reality and it is not to be found in the freedom of consciousness from matter and its limitations and distortions. Most of the people in the world just do not know that there is reality which can be found and experienced in consciousness. It seems very important that they should hear the good news from somebody who has actually experienced it. Such witnesses have always existed and their testimony is precious.
Niz: Of course. The gospel of self-relization, once heard, will never be forgotten. Like a seed left in the ground, it will wait for the right season and sprout and grow into a mighty tree.
===
from Chapter 41 of "I AM THAT", "Develop the Witness Attitude"
seeker: Surely, the dissolution of the body is an important event even to a jnani.
Niz: There are no important events for a jnani, except when somebody reaches the highest goal. Only then does his heart rejoice. All else is of no concen. The entire universe is his body, all life is his life. As in a city of lights, when one bulb burns out it does not affect the network so the death of a body does not affect the whole.
...
seeker: Are sin and virtue one and the same?
Niz: These are all man-made values! What are they to me? What ends in happiness is virtue, what ends in sorrow is sin. Both are states of mind. Mind is not a state of mind.
...
seeker: Is the practice of silence as a sadhana effective?
Niz: Anything you do for the sake of enlightenment takes you nearer. Anything you do without remembering enlightenment puts you off. But why complicate? Just know that you are above and beyond all things and thoughts. What you want to be -- you are it already. Just keep it in mind.
seeker: I hear you saying it, but I cannot believe it.
Niz: I was in the same position myself. But I trusted my guru and he proved to be right. Trust me if you can. Keep in mind what I tell you: Desire nothing, for you lack nothing. The very seeking prevents you from finding.
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Post by laughter on Jan 31, 2013 20:16:57 GMT -5
Q: Why should seeking end before one can realize?
Niz: The desire for truth is the highest of all desires, yet it is still a desire. All desires must be given up for the real to be. Remember that you are. This is your working capital. Rotate it and there will be much profit.
(from chapter 43 of "I AM THAT", "Ignorance Can Be Recognized, Not Jnana")
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Post by laughter on Feb 2, 2013 17:50:52 GMT -5
Q: As I listen to you, I find that it is useless to ask you questions. Whatever the question, you invariabley turn it upon itself and bring me to the basic fact that I am living in an illusion of my own making and that reality is inexpressible in words. Words merely add to the confusion and the only wise course is the silent search within.
Niz: After all, it is the mind that creates illusion and it is the mind that gets free of it. Words may agravate illusion, but words may also help dispell it. There is nothing wrong in repeating the same truth again and again until it becomes reality. A mother's work is not over with the birth of the child. She feeds it day after day, year after year until it needs her no longer. People need to hear words, until facts speak to them louder than words.
Q: So we are children to be fed on words?
Niz: As long as you give importance to words, you are children.
(start of chapter 39 of "I AM THAT", "By Itself, Nothing Has Existence")
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Post by laughter on Feb 5, 2013 22:46:49 GMT -5
seeker: All you say sounds very beautiful. But does one make it into a way of living?
Niz: Having never left the house you are asking for a way home. Get rid of wrong ideas, that is all. Collecting right ideas also will take you nowhere. Just cease imagining.
seeker: It is not a matter of achievement, but of understanding.
Niz: Don't try to understand! Enough if you do not misunderstand. Don't rely on your mind for liberation. It is the mind that brought you into bondage. Go beyond it altogether.
What is beginningless cannot have a cause. It is not that you knew what you are and then you have forgotten. Once you know, you cannot forget. Ignorance has no beginning, but can have an end. Inquire who is ignorant and ignorance will dissolve like a dream. The world is full of contradictions; hence your search for harmony and peace. These you cannot find in the world, for the world is the child of chaos. To find order you must search within. The world comes into being only when you are born in a body. No body, no world. First inquire whether you are the body. The understanding of the world will come later.
...
seeker: All you say is held together by your assumption that the world is your own projection. You admit that you mean your personal, subjective world, the world given to you through your senses and your mind. In that sense each one of us lives in a world of his own projection. Those private worlds hardly touch each other and they arise from and merge into the 'I am' at their center. But surely behind these private worlds there must be a common objective world, of which the private worlds are mere shadows. Do you deny the existence of such an objective world, common to all?
Niz: Reality is neither subjective nor objective, neither mind nor matter, neither time nor space. These divisions need somebody to whom they happen, a conscious seperate center. But reality is all and nothing, the totality and the exclusion, the fullness and the emptiness, fully consistent and absolutely paradoxical. You cannot speak about it; you can only lose yourself in it. When you deny reality to anything, you come to a residue which cannot be denied.
All talk of jnana is a sign of ignorance. It is the mind that imagines that it does not know and then comes to know. Reality knows nothing of these contortions. Even the idea of God as the Creator is false. Do I owe my being to any other being? Because I am, all is.
(from near the end of chapter 45 of "I AM THAT", "What Comes and Goes Has No Being")
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Post by laughter on Feb 12, 2013 13:47:43 GMT -5
seeker: To do what you tell me I must be ceaselessly aware.
Niz: To be aware is to be awake. Unaware means asleep. You are aware anyhow; you need not try to be. What you need is to be aware of being aware. Be aware deliberately and consciously; broaden and deepen the field of awareness. You are always conscious of the mind, but you are not aware of yourself as being conscious.
...
seeker: At this very moment who talks, if not the mind?
Niz: That which hears the question answers it.
seeker: But who is it?
Niz: Not who, but what. I am not a person in your sense of the word, though I may appear to be a person to you. I am that infinite ocean of consciousness in which all happens. I am also beyond all existence and congnition, pur bliss of being. There is nothing I feel seperate from hence I am all. No thing is me, so I am nothing.
(from chapter 48 of "I AM THAT", "Awareness Is Free")
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Post by laughter on Feb 13, 2013 5:37:55 GMT -5
Niz: A person is a set pattern of desires and thoughts and resulting actions;
(From Chapter 48 of "I AM THAT", "Awareness is Free")
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Post by laughter on Feb 16, 2013 5:16:44 GMT -5
Q: The Absolute or Life that you talk about -- is it real or a mere theory to cover up our ignorance?
Niz: Both. To the mind, a theory; in itself -- is a reality. It is reality in its spontaneous and total rejection of the false. Just as light destoys darkness by its very presence, so does the absolute destroy imagination. To see that all knowledge is a form of ignorance is itself a movement of reality. The witness is not a person. The person comes into being when there is a basis for it, an organism, a body. In it the absolute is reflected as awareness. Pure awareness becomes self-awareness. When there is a self, self-awareness is the witness. When there is no self to witness, there is no witnessing, either. It is all very simple; it is the presence of the person that complicates. See that there is no such thing as a permanetly seperate person and all becomes clear. Awareness -- mind -- matter -- they are one reality in its two aspects as immovable and movable, and the three attributes of inertia, energy and harmony.
(From chapter 50 of "I AM THAT", "Self-Awareness Is the Witness")
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