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Post by laughter on May 16, 2013 7:51:57 GMT -5
(From Chapter 78 of "I AM THAT", "All Knowledge is Ignorance")
seeker: One what side is the witness? Is it real or unreal?
Niz: Nobody can say, "I am the witness". The "I am " is always witnessed. The state of detached awareness is the witness-consciousness, the 'mirror-mind'. It rises and sets with its object and thus it is not quite the real. Whatever its object, it remains the same; hence it is also real. It partakes of both the real and the unreal and is therefore a bridge between the tow.
seeker: if all happens only to the "I am", if the "I am" is the unknown and the knower and the knoweledge itself, what does the witness do? of what use is it?
Niz: It does nothing and is of no use whatsoever.
seeker: Then why do we talk of it?
Niz: Because it is there. The bridge serves one purpose only -- to cross over. You don't build houses on a bridge. The "I am" looks at things, the witness sees through them. It sees them as they are -- unreal and transient. To say 'not me, not mine' is the task of the witness.
seeker: Is it the manifested (saguna) by which the unmanifested (nirguna) is represented?
Niz: The unmanifested is not represented. Nothing manifested can represent the unmanifested.
seeker: Then why do you talk of it?
Niz: Because it is my birthplace.
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Post by laughter on May 17, 2013 8:07:49 GMT -5
(From Chapter 79 of "I AM THAT", "The Person, The Witness and the Supreme")
seeker: I find that I am always restless, longing, hoping, seeking, finding, enjoying, abandoning, searching again. What is it that keeps me on the boil?
Niz: You are really in search of yourself without knowing it. You are love-longing for the loveworthy, the perfectly loveable. Due to ignorance you are looking for it in the world of opposites and contradictions. When you find it within, your search will be over.
seeker: There will be always this sorrowful world to contend with.
Niz: Don't anticipate. You do not know. It is true that all manifestation is in opposites. Pleasure and pain, good and bad, high and low, progress and regress, rest and strife -- they all come and go together -- and as long as there is a worlds, its contradictions will be there. There may also be periods of perfect harmony, of bliss and beauty, but only for a time. What is perfect returns to the source of all perfection and the opposites play on.
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Post by laughter on May 18, 2013 9:25:20 GMT -5
(From Chapter 79 of "I AM THAT", "The Person, the Witness and the Supreme")
Q: Can there be awareness without and object of awareness?
Niz: Awareness with an object we called witnessing. When there is also self-identification with the object, caused by desire or fear, such a state is called a person; In reality there is only one state; when distorted by self-identification it is called a person, when colored with the sense of being, it is the witness; when colorless and limitless, it is called the Supreme.
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Post by laughter on May 18, 2013 9:30:00 GMT -5
(From Chapter 80 of "I AM THAT", "Awareness")
seeker: Does self-realization happen in matter or beyond? Is it not an experience depending on the body and the mind for its occurrence?
Niz: All experience is illusory limited and temporal. Expect nothing from experience. Realization by itself is not an experience, though it may lead to a new dimension of experiences. Yet the new experiences, however interesting, are not more real than the old. Definitely, realization is not a new experience. It is the discovery of the timeless factor in every experience. It is awareness, which makes experience possible. Just like in all colors, light is the colorless factor, so in every experience awareness is present, yet it is not an experience.
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Post by Deleted on May 24, 2013 3:59:33 GMT -5
"Everything is a play of ideas. In the state free of ideation, nothing is percieved."
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Post by laughter on May 25, 2013 12:06:58 GMT -5
(From Chapter 80 of "I AM THAT", "Awareness")
seeker: From where does desire draw its energy?
Niz: Its name and shape it draws from memory. The energy flows from the source.
seeker: Some desires are altogether wrong. How can wrong desires flow from a sublime source?
Niz: The source is neither right nor wrong. Nor is desire by itself right or wrong. It is nothing but striving for happiness. Having identified yourself with a speck of a body you feel lost and search desperately for the sense of fullness and completeness, which you call happiness.
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Post by laughter on May 25, 2013 12:12:13 GMT -5
(From Chapter 81 of "I AM THAT", "The Root Cause of Fear")
seeker: What hope is left which the eternity behind me could not fulfill? Why should my future be different from my past?
Niz: In your fevered state, you project a past and a future and take them to be real. In fact, you know only your present moment. Why not investigate what is now instead of questioning the imaginary past and future? Your present state is neither beginningless nor endless. It is over in a flash. Watch carefully from where it comes and where it goes. You will soon discover the timeless reality behind it.
seeker: Why have I not done it before?
Niz: Just as every wave subsides into the ocean, so does every moment return to its source. Realization consists in discovering the source and abiding there.
seeker: Who discovers?
Niz: The mind discovers.
seeker: Does it find the answers?
Niz: It finds that it is left without questions, that no answers are needed.
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Post by Deleted on May 25, 2013 17:05:09 GMT -5
"All that you know is second-hand, only the I AM is first-hand and needs no proofs. Stay with it." (Personal observation: tremendous resistance to this. Hearing philosophy professors screaming "solipsism!!". Hearing Niz countering "so what. Stay with it."
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Post by laughter on Jun 6, 2013 23:55:31 GMT -5
(From chapter 83 of "I AM THAT", "The True Guru")
seeker: If there is no such thing as the knowledge of the real, then how do I reach it?
Niz: You need not reach out for what is already with you. Your very reaching out makes you miss it. Give up the idea that you have not found it and just let it come into the focus of direct perception, here and now, by removing all that is of the mind.
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Post by laughter on Jun 7, 2013 14:02:56 GMT -5
(From Chapter 82 of "I AM THAT", "Absolute Perfection is Here and Now")
Q: An individual with a weak sense of personality -- is he nearer self-realization?
Niz: Take the case of a young child. The sense of 'I am' is not yet formed; the personality is rudimentary. The obstacles to self-knowledge are few, but the power and the clarity of awareness, its width and depth are lacking. In the course of years awareness will grow stronger, but also the latent personality will emerge and obscure and complicate. Just as the harder the wood, the hotter the flame, so the stronger the personality, the brighter the light generated from its destruction.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 7, 2013 14:29:41 GMT -5
(From Chapter 82 of "I AM THAT", "Absolute Perfection is Here and Now")Q: An individual with a weak sense of personality -- is he nearer self-realization? Niz: Take the case of a young child. The sense of 'I am' is not yet formed; the personality is rudimentary. The obstacles to self-knowledge are few, but the power and the clarity of awareness, its width and depth are lacking. In the course of years awareness will grow stronger, but also the latent personality will emerge and obscure and complicate. Just as the harder the wood, the hotter the flame, so the stronger the personality, the brighter the light generated from its destruction. :-) |
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Post by laughter on Jun 8, 2013 13:29:17 GMT -5
(From Chapter 83 of "I AM THAT", "The True Guru")
seeker: Perception is primary, the witness is secondary.
Niz: This is the heart of the matter. As long as you believe that only the outer world is real, you remain its slave. To become free, your attention must be drawn to the 'I am', the witness. Or course, the knower and the known are one, not two; but to break the spell of the known, the knower must be brought to the forefront. Neither is primary; both are reflections in memory of the ineffable experience, ever -- new and ever -- now, untranslatable, quicker than mind.
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Post by laughter on Jun 13, 2013 21:31:32 GMT -5
(From Chapter 83 of "I AM THAT", "The True Guru")
seeker: Is it right to change gurus?
Niz: Why not change? Gurus are like milestones. It is natural to move on from one to another. Each tells you the direction and the distance, while the sadguru, the eternal guru, is the road itself. Once you realize that the road is the goal and that you are always on the road, not to reach a goal, but to enjoy its beauty and its wisdom, life ceases to be a task and becomes natural and simple, in itself an ecstasy.
seeker: So, there is no need to worship, to pray, to practice yoga?
Niz: A little daily sweeping, washing, and bathing can do no harm. Nor a few dozen posts a day on ST. Self-awareness tells you at every step what needs be done. When all is done, the mind remains silent.
Now you are in the waking state, a person with name and shape, joys and sorrows. The person was not there before you were born, nor will it be there after you die. Instead of struggling with the person to make it become what it is not, why not go beyond the waking state and leave the personal life altogether? It does not mean the extinction of the person; it only means seeing it in the right perspective.
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Post by laughter on Jun 15, 2013 3:00:44 GMT -5
(From chapter 84 of "I AM THAT", "Your Goal is Your Guru")
Q: How can I make out who is a real saint and who is not?
Niz: You cannot, unless you have clear insight into the heart of man. Appearances are deceptive. To see clearly, your mind must be pure and unattached. Unless you know yourself -- you are the other.
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Post by justlikeyou on Jun 16, 2013 8:13:13 GMT -5
-- You must come to a firm decision. You must forget the thought that you are the body and be only the knowledge ‘I am’, which has no form, no name. Just be. When you stabilize in that beingness it will give all the knowledge and all the secrets to you, and when the secrets are given to you, you transcend the beingness, and you, the Absolute will know that you are also not the consciousness. Having gained all this knowledge, having understood what is what, a kind of quietude prevails, a tranquility. Beingness is transcended, but beingness is available --
From "Prior to Consciousness"
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