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Post by laughter on Mar 27, 2013 13:38:04 GMT -5
(from Chapter 61 of "I AM THAT", "Matter Is Consciousness Itself")
Niz: In my world, love is the only law. I do not ask for love, I give it. Such is my nature.
Q: I see you living your life according to a pattern. You run a meditation class in the morning, lecture and have discussions regularly; twice daily there is worship (puja) and devotional singing (bhajan) in the evening. You seem to adhere to a routine scrupulously.
Niz: The worship and the singing are as I found them and I saw no reason to interfere. The general routine is according to the wishes of the people whith whom I happen to live or who come to listen. They are working people with many obligations and the timing is for their convenience. Some repetitive routine is inevitable. Even animals and plants have their timetables.
Q: Yes, we see a regular sequence in all life. Who maintains the order? Is there an inner ruler, who lays down laws and enforces order?
Niz: Everything moves according to its nature. Where is the need of a policeman? Every action creates a reaction which balances and neutralizes the action. Everything happens, but there is a continuous canceling out, and in the end it is as if nothing happened.
Q: Do not console me with final harmonies. The accounts tally, but the loss is mine.
Niz: Wait and see. You may end up with a profit good enough to justify the outlays.
Q: There is a long life behind me and I often wonder whether its many events took place by accident, or whether there was a plan. Was there a pattern laid down before I was born by which I had to live my life? If so, who made the plans and who enforced them? Can there be deviations and mistakes? Some say destiny is immutable and every second of life is predetermined; others say that pure accident decides everything.
Niz: You can have it as you like. You can distinguish a pattern in your life or see merely a chain of accidents. Explanations are meant to please the mind. They need not be true. Reality is undefinable and indescribable.
Q: Sir, you are evading my question! I want to know how you look at it. Wherever we look, we find a structure of unbelievable intelligence and beauty. How can I believe that the universe is formless and chaotic? Your world, the world in which you live, may be formless, but it need not be chaotic.
Niz: The objective universe has structure, is orderly and beautiful. Nobody can deny it. But structure and pattern imply constraint and compulsion. My world is absolutely free; everything in it is self-determined. Therefore I keep on saying that all happens by itself. There is order in my world too, but it is not imposed from outside. It comes spontaneously and immediately because of its timelessness. Perfection is not in the future. It is now .
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Post by laughter on Mar 31, 2013 19:20:30 GMT -5
(the end of Chapter 61 of "I AM THAT", "Matter is Consciousness Itself")
Q: Are you always in a state of samadhi?
Niz: Of course not. Samadhi is a state of mind, after all. I am beyond all experience, even of samadhi. I am the great devourer and destroyer: whatever I touch dissolves into void (akash).
Q: I need samadhis for self-realization.
Niz: You have all the self-realization you need, but you do not trust it. Have courage, trust yourself, go, talk, act; give it a chance to prove itself. With some, realization comes imperceptibly, but somehow they need convincing. They have changed, but they do not notice it. Such non-spectacular cases are often the most reliable.
Q: Can one believe himself to be realized and be mistaken?
Niz: Of course, the Very idea "I am self-realized" is a mistake. There is no "I am this", "I am that" in the Natural State.
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Post by laughter on Mar 31, 2013 19:26:13 GMT -5
Niz: The present "I am" is as false as the "I was" and "I shall be". It is merely an idea in the mind, an impression left by memory, and the separate identity it creates is false. This habit of referring to a false center must be done away with; the notion "I see", I feel", "I think", "I do", must disappear from the field of consciousness; what remains when the false is no more is real.
(2nd paragraph of Chapter 62 of "I AM THAT", "In the Supreme, the Witness Appears")
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Post by laughter on Mar 31, 2013 19:36:22 GMT -5
(from Chapter 62 of "I AM THAT", "In the Supreme, the Witness Appears")
Niz: There is no 'I' apart from the body, or the world. The three appear and disappear together. At the root is the sense 'I am'. Go beyond it. The idea 'I am not body' is merely an antidote to the idea 'I am the body', which is false. What is that 'I am'? Unless you know yourself, what else can you know?
Q: From what you say, I conclude that without the body there can be no liberation. If the idea 'I am not the body' leads to liberation, the presence of the body is essential.
Niz: Quite right. Without the body, how can the idea 'I am not the body' come into being? The idea 'I am free' is as false as the idea 'I am in bondage'. Find out the 'I am ' common to both and go beyond.
Q: All is dream only.
Niz: All are mere words -- of what use are they to you? You are entangled in the web of verbal definitions and formulations. Go beyond your concepts and ideas; in the silence of desire and thought, the truth is found.
Q: One has to remember not to remember. What a task!
Niz: It cannot be done, of course -- it must happen. But it does happen when you truly see the need of it. Again, earnestness is the golden key.
Q: At the back of my mind there is a hum going on all the time. Numerous weak thoughts swarm and buzz and this shapeless cloud is always with me. Is it the same with you? What is at the back of your mind?
Niz: Where there is no mind, there is no back to it. I am all front, no back! The void speaks, the void remains.
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Post by laughter on Apr 3, 2013 11:49:52 GMT -5
Niz: It is because the "I am " is false that it wants to continue. Reality does not need to continue -- knowing itself to be indestructible, it is indifferent to the destruction of forms and expressions. To strengthen and stabilize the "I am" we do all sorts of things -- all in vain, for the "I am" is being rebuilt from moment to moment. It is unceasing work and the only radical solution is to dissolve the separative sense of "I am such-and-such person" once and for all. Being remains, but not self-being.
seeker: I have definite spiritual ambitions. Must I not work for their fulfillment?
Niz: No ambition is spiritual. All ambitions are for the sake of the "I am". If you want to make real progress, you must give up all idea of personal attainment. The ambitions of the sol-called yogis are preposterous. A man's desire for a woman is innocence itself compared to the lusting fro an everlasting personal bliss. The mind is a cheat. The more pious it seems, the worse the betrayal.
(From Chapter 63 of "I AM THAT", "The Notion of Doership Is Bondage")
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Post by laughter on Apr 5, 2013 1:05:53 GMT -5
(From Chapter 64 of "I AM THAT", "Whatever Pleases You Keeps You Back")
Niz: We believe in so many things on hearsay. We believe in distant lands and people, in heavens and hells, in gods and goddesses, because we were told. Similarly, we were told about ourselves, our parents, name, position, duties and so on. We never cared to verify. The way to truth lies through the destruction of the false. To destroy the false, you must question your most inveterate beliefs. Of these, the idea that you are the body is the worst. With the body comes the world; with the worlds -- God, who is supposed to have created the world. And thus it starts -- fears, religions, prayers, sacrifices, all sorts of systems -- all to protect and support the child-man, frightened out of his wits by monsters of his own making. Realize that what you are cannot be born nor die, and with the fear gone, all suffering ends.
...
Q: We were told that of all forms of spiritual practices, the practice of the attitude of a mere witness is the most efficacious. How does it compare with faith?
Niz: The witness attitude is also faith -- faith in oneself. You believe that you are not what you experience and you look at everything as if from a distance. There is no effort in witnessing. You understand that you are the witness only and the understanding acts. You need nothing more -- just remember that you are the witness only. If in the state of witnessing you ask yourself, "Who am I?", the answer comes at once, though it is wordless and silent. Cease to be the object and become the subject of all that happens; once having turned within, you will find yourself beyond the subject. When you have found yourself, you will find that you are also beyond the object, that both the subject and the object exist in you, but you are neither.
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Post by laughter on Apr 5, 2013 13:10:54 GMT -5
seeker: The very words 'I' and 'universal', are contradictory. One excludes the other. Niz: They don't. The sense of identity pervades the universal. Search and you shall discover the Universal Person, who is yourself and infintely more. Anyhow, begin by realizing that the world is in you, not you in the world. seeker: How can it be? I am only a part of the world. How can the whole world be contained in the part, except by reflection, mirror-like? Niz: What you say is true. Your personal body is a part in which the whole is wonderfully reflected. But you also have a universal body. You cannot even say that you do not know it, because you see and experience it all the time. Only you call it 'the world' and are afraid of it. (From Chapter 65 of "I AM THAT", "A Quiet Mind is All You Need")
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Post by laughter on Apr 5, 2013 22:17:31 GMT -5
(From Chapter 65 of "I AM THAT", "A Quiet Mind is All You Need")
seeker: However deeply I look, I find only the mind. Your words, "beyond the mind", give me no clue.
Niz: While looking with the mind, you cannot go beyond it. To go beyond, you must look away from the mind and its contents.
seeker: In what direction am I to look?
Niz: All directions are within the mind! I am not asking you to look in any particular direction. Just look away from all that happens in your mind and bring it to the feeling "I am". The "I am" is not a direction. It is the negation of all direction. Ultimately, even the "I am" will have to go, for you need not keep on asserting what is obvious. Bringing the mind to the feeling "I am" merely helps in turning the mind away from everything else.
seeker: Where does it all lead me?
Niz: When the mind is kept away from its preoccupations, it becomes quiet. If you do not disturb this quiet and stay in it, you find that it is permeated with a light and a love you have never known; and yet you recognize it at once as your own nature. Once you have passed through this experience, you will never be the same man again; the unruly mind may break its peace and obliterate its vision, but it is bound to return, provided the effort is sustained, until the day when all bonds are broken, delusions and attachments, and life becomes supremely concentrated in the present.
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Post by laughter on Apr 9, 2013 22:12:41 GMT -5
(From Chapter 65 of "I AM THAT", "A Quiet Mind is all You Need")
Niz: Realize yourself as the ocean of consciousness in which all happens. This is not difficult. A little attentiveness, close observation of oneself, and you will see that no event is outside your consciousness.
Q: The world is full of events which do not appear in my consciousness.
Niz: Even your body is full of events which do not appear in your consciousness. This does not prevent you from claiming your body to be your own. You know the world exactly as you know your body -- through your senses. It is your mind that has separated the world outside your skin from the world inside and put them in opposition. This has created fear and hatred and all the miseries of living.
Q: What I do not follow is what you say about going beyond consciousness. I understand the words, but I cannot visualize the experience. After all, you yourself have said that all experience is in consciousness.
Niz: You are right there can be no experience beyond consciousness. Yet there is the experience of just being. There is a state beyond consciousness which is not unconscious. Some call it super-consciousness, or pure consciousness, or supreme consciousness. It is pure awareness, free from the subject-object nexus.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 10, 2013 3:58:28 GMT -5
(From Chapter 65 of "I AM THAT", "A Quiet Mind is all You Need")Niz: Even your body is full of events which do not appear in your consciousness. This does not prevent you from claiming your body to be your own.  |
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Post by laughter on Apr 10, 2013 13:33:38 GMT -5
(The conclusion of Chapter 65 of "I AM THAT", "A Quiet Mind is All You Need")
Q: Do I need the mind to know myself?
Niz: You are beyond the mind, but you know with your mind. It is obvious that the extent, depth and character of knowledge depend on what instrument you use. Improve your instrument and your knowledge will improve.
Q: To know perfectly I need a perfect mind.
Niz: A quiet mind is all you need. All else will happen rightly, once your mind is quiet. As the sun on rising makes the world active, so does self-awareness affect changes in the mind. In the light of calm and steady self-awareness inner energies wake up and work miracles without any effort on your part.
Q: You mean to say that the greatest work is done by not working?
Niz: Exactly. Do understand that you are destined for enlightenment. Co-operate with your destiny, don’t go against it, don’t thwart it. Allow it to fulfill itself. All you have to do is to give attention to the obstacles created by the foolish mind.
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Post by laughter on Apr 16, 2013 16:44:28 GMT -5
(From chapter 66 of "I AM THAT", "All Search for Happiness is Misery")
Q: What is the source of earnestness?
Niz: It is the homing instinct which makes the bird return to its nest and the fish to the mountain stream where it was born. The seed returns to the earth when the fruit is ripe. Ripeness is all.
Q: And what will ripen me? Do I need experience?
Niz: You already have all the experience you need, otherwise you would not have come here. You need not gather any more, rather you must go beyond experience. Whatever effort you make, whatever method (sadhana) you follow will merely generate more experience but will not take you beyond. Nor will reading books help you. They will enrich your mind, but the person you are will remain intact. If you expect any benefits from your search – material, mental or spiritual – you have missed the point. Truth gives no advantage. It gives you no higher status, no power over others; all you get is truth and the freedom from the false.
Q: Surely truth gives you the power to help others.
Niz: This is more imagination, however noble! In truth, you do not help others because there are no others. You divide people into noble and ignoble and you ask the noble to help the ignoble. You separate, you evaluate, you judge and condemn – in the name of truth, you destroy it. Your very desire to formulate truth denies it because it cannot be contained in words. Truth can be expressed only by the denial of the false – in action. For this you must see the false as false (viveka) and reject it (vairagya). Renunciation of the false is liberating and energizing. It lays open the road to perfection.
Q: When will I know that I have discovered truth?
Niz: When the ideas “this is true”, “that is true” do not arise. Truth does not assert itself; it is in the seeing of the false as false and rejecting it. It is useless to search for truth when the mind is blind to the false. It must be purged of the false completely before truth can dawn on it.
Q: But what is false?
Niz: Surely, what has no being is false.
Q: What do you mean by having no being? The false is there, hard as a nail.
Niz: What contradicts itself has no being. Or it has only momentary being, which comes to the same, for what has a beginning and an end has no middle. It is hollow. It has only the name and shape given to it by the mind, but it has neither substance nor essence.
Q: If all that passes has no being, then the universe has no being either.
Niz: Who ever denies it? Of course the universe has no being.
Q: Then what does?
Niz: That which does not depend for its existence, which does not arise with the universe arising nor set with the universe setting, which does not need any proof but imparts reality to all it touches. It is the nature of the false that it appears to be real for a moment. One could say that the true becomes the father of the false. But the false is limited in time and space and is produced by circumstances.
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Post by laughter on Apr 20, 2013 12:01:54 GMT -5
(From Chapter 69 of "I AM THAT", "Transiency is Proof of Uncertainty")
Niz: If you say 'Nothing worries me, I have no problems,' it is all right with me -- we can keep quiet. But if something really touches you, then there is purpose in talking.
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Post by laughter on Apr 20, 2013 12:04:40 GMT -5
(From Chapter 69 of "I AM THAT", "Transiency is Proof of Unreality")
Niz: You are the infinite focused in a body. Now you see the body only. Try earnestly and you will come to see the infinite only.
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Post by enigma on Apr 21, 2013 17:37:45 GMT -5
Niz: "When all the false self-identifications are thrown away, what remains is all-embracing love."
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