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Question:
Being IT, I love my manifestations, my wife, my children, the trees and
mountains around me. I love my dog, my oldtimer, my patients, the
elegance and warmness of your book, I love also being old. I am however
afraid of pain, troubled by the worldsituations, hate Bush.
When I read some advaita quotations, I think, I am totaly wrong. My attitude should be one of indifference or perhaps better, there is nothing wrong with any manifestation, all being the way IT expresses ITself to me (IT).The emotions, feelings, thoughts included. Please, where am I going wrong in this constructions? Answer: You are truly IT. This does not mean that the person is IT, but that IT is the person. It is a small difference to see it like that, and yet it is a huge difference. It is like seeing that the wave is an expression of the ocean, rather than that the ocean is an expression of the wave. The wave can recognize its true nature as nothing but ocean, even when it displays the properties of an apparent separate wave. In the same way it can be seen that the 'wave/person' with all its preferences, likes and dislikes is but an expression of the Self. The character and its preferences can still appear. As long as the body/mind is present, its limitations and conditioning will keep on functioning to a certain degree. The conditioning may slow down when it is seen for what it is; nothing but another modification in the Awareness you are. Remember, you cannot go wrong, as the apparent separate you is but an expression of the real YOU. If disagreement with Bush comes up, recognize it as part of the relative level where the game seems real; where one apparent character does not agree with an apparent other. Just let it be, disagree with a wink and a smile, and know it is all the One/You doing ITS dance. As Meher Baba said: "Don't worry be happy." If or when you have a question you'd like to see answered in this newsletter send it to: author@awakeningtothedream.com Picture: I Love My Dog Found at: www.showercurtainart.com/ love.html |
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November 29th, 1935
Swami Yogananda [author of Autobigraphy of a Yogi], with four others, arrived at 8:45 a.m. He looks big, but gentle and well groomed. He has dark flowing hair, hanging over his shoulders. The group had lunch in the Asramam. Mr. C.R. Wright (his secretary) asked: How shall I realize God? Maharshi: God is an unknown entity. Moreover, He is external. Whereas, the Self is always with you and it is you. Why do you leave out what is intimate and go in for what is external? D: What is the Self again? Maharshi: The Self is known to everyone, but not clearly. You always exist. The Being is the Self. "I am" is the name of God. Of all the definitions of God, none is indeed so well put as the Biblical statement "I am that I am" in Exodus (chap.3). There are other statements, such as Brahmaivaham [Brahman am I] , aham Brahmasmi [I am Brahman] and Soham [I am he]. But none is so direct as the name Jehovah = "I am". The absolute being is what is - It is the Self. It is God. Knowing the Self, God is known. In fact, God is none other than the Self. D: Why are there good and evil? Maharshi: They are relative terms. There must be a subject to know the good and evil. That subject is the ego. Trace the source of the ego. It ends in the Self. The source of the ego is God. This definition of God is probably more concrete and more easily understood by you. D: So it is. How to get bliss? Maharshi: Bliss is not something to be got. On the other hand, you always are bliss. This desire is born of the sense of incompleteness. To whom is this sense of incompleteness? Inquire. In deep sleep, you were blissful. Now you are not so. What is iterposed between that bliss and this non-bliss? It is the ego. Seek its source and find you are bliss . There is nothing new to get. You have, on the other hand, to get rid of your ignorance, which makes you think that you are other than bliss. For whom is this ignorance? It is the ego. Trace the source of the ego. Then the ego is lost and bliss remains. It is eternal. You are That, here and now. That is the master key for solving all doubts. The doubts arise in the mind. The mind is born of the ego. The ego rises from the Self. Search the source of the ego, and the Self is revealed. That alone remains. The universe is only expanded Self. It is not different from the Self. D: What is the best way of living? Maharshi: It differs according to one's being a jnani (one who knows) or ajnani (one who is ignorant). A jnani does not find anything different or separate from the Self. All are in the Self. It is wrong to imagine that there is the world, that there is a body in it and that you dwell in the body. If the Truth is known, the universe and what is beyond it will be found to be only in the Self. The outlook differs according to the sight of the person. The sight is from the eye. The eye must be located somewhere. If you are seeing with the gross eye, you find others gross. If with subtle eyes (i.e. the mind), others appear subtle. If the eye becomes the Self, the Self being infinite, the eye is infinite. There is nothing else to see different from the Self. (He thanked Maharshi. He was told that the best way of thanking is to remain always as the Self.)
From the book: 'Talks with Ramana Maharshi ' InnerDirections Publishing, 2000.
Found at: MillionPaths@yahoogroups.com |
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The wanting-creature I said to the wanting-creature inside me: What is this river you want to cross? There are no travelers on the river-road, and no road. Do you see anyone moving about on that bank, or nesting? There is no river at all, and no boat, and no boatman. There is no tow rope either, and no one to pull it. There is no ground, no sky, no time, no bank, no ford! And there is no body, and no mind! Do you believe there is some place that will make the soul less thirsty? In that great absence you will find nothing. Be strong then, and enter into your own body; there you have a solid place for your feet. Think about it carefully! Don't go off somewhere else! Kabir says this: just throw away all thoughts of imaginary things, and stand firm in that which you are.
From: "The Kabir Book" -Forty-Four of the Ecstatic Poems of Kabir.
Robert Bly (Editor) |
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All know that the drop merges into the ocean but few know that the ocean merges into the drop. -Kabir- Painting by Rassouli: THE DROP AND THE OCEAN Visit him at: http://www.rassouli.com/encino.htm |
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THE OLD MAN, THE BOY AND THE DONKEY An old man, a boy, and a donkey were going to town. The boy rode on the donkey and the old man walked. As they went along, they passed some people who remarked it was a shame the old man was walking and the boy was riding. The old man and the boy thought that maybe the critics were right, so they changed places. Later, they passed some more people that remarked, "What a shame he makes that little boy walk." They then decided they both would walk. Soon they passed some more people who thought they were stupid to walk when they had a decent donkey to ride.So, they both rode the donkey. Now they passed some more people that shamed them by saying how awful to see such a load on a poor donkey. The boy and the man said they were probably right, so they decided to carry the donkey. As they crossed a bridge, they lost their grip on the animal and he fell into the river and drowned. The moral of the story? If you try to please everyone, you might as well kiss your ass good-bye. |
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