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Whichever method suits you use it.
But by all means do something.
Do not allow a day to go by where you do not give up your identification with the world.
Either through surrender, or through Self-Inquiry, or through mindfulness, or through observation.
Do whatever you have to do.
But do not let a day go by when the world has a hold of you and you do nothing.
----------
If you can take the time to sit down in a chair and practice these methods.
If you have no time to sit down in a chair, do them while you are working or whatever you are doing.
There is always something you can do.
There is no such thing as I don’t have any time.
You have enough time to do all the foolish things you do. (laughter)
So take the time to do this also.
44 Signs of Progress - February 14, 1991
But by all means do something.
Do not allow a day to go by where you do not give up your identification with the world.
Either through surrender, or through Self-Inquiry, or through mindfulness, or through observation.
Do whatever you have to do.
But do not let a day go by when the world has a hold of you and you do nothing.
----------
If you can take the time to sit down in a chair and practice these methods.
If you have no time to sit down in a chair, do them while you are working or whatever you are doing.
There is always something you can do.
There is no such thing as I don’t have any time.
You have enough time to do all the foolish things you do. (laughter)
So take the time to do this also.
44 Signs of Progress - February 14, 1991
As soon as you see something,
you already start to intellectualize it.
As soon as you intellectualize something,
it is no longer what you saw.
you already start to intellectualize it.
As soon as you intellectualize something,
it is no longer what you saw.
Be yourself.
Life is precious as it is.
All the elements for your happiness are already here.
There is no need to run, strive, search or struggle.
Just Be.
Life is precious as it is.
All the elements for your happiness are already here.
There is no need to run, strive, search or struggle.
Just Be.
In the beginning, we must develop a confidence in our understanding, clearing out all preconceptions. Nihilism, eternalism, all beliefs have to be cut through, transcended. When the basic, absolute, ultimate hypocrisy has been unmasked, then one really begins to see the jewel shining in its brightness: the energetic, living quality of openness, the living quality of surrender, the living quality of renunciation.
Too lazy to be ambitious,
I let the world take care of itself.
Ten days’ worth of rice in my bag;
a bundle of twigs by the fireplace.
Why chatter about delusion and enlightenment?
Listening to the night rain on my roof,
I sit comfortably, with both legs stretched out.
I let the world take care of itself.
Ten days’ worth of rice in my bag;
a bundle of twigs by the fireplace.
Why chatter about delusion and enlightenment?
Listening to the night rain on my roof,
I sit comfortably, with both legs stretched out.
Man, in order to escape his conflicts, has invented many forms of meditation. These have been based on desire, will, and the urge for achievement, and imply conflict and a struggle to arrive. This conscious, deliberate striving is always within the limits of a conditioned mind, and in this there is no freedom. All effort to meditate is the denial of meditation. Meditation is the ending of thought. It is only then that there is a different dimension which is beyond time.
PADAMALAI
The unreality of the ego
30 Neither in this world nor anywhere else
does there exist for you a malevolent enemy like the ego.
31 Enquire within and know the source of the ego so that the ego departs and the experience of Atma-swarupa surges.
32 If you enquire within yourself and know the nature of the powerful ego-ghost, then, like the [presumed] best man, it will run away and disappear.
Bhagavan: In a Hindu marriage function, the feasts continue five or six days. A stranger was mistaken for the best man by the bride's party and they therefore treated him with special regard. Seeing him treated with special regard by the bride's party, the bridegroom's party considered him to be some man of importance related to the bride's party and therefore they too showed him special respect. The stranger had altogether a happy time of it.
He was also all along aware of the real situation. On one occasion the groom's party wanted to refer to him on some
point. They asked for him. He scented trouble and made
himself scarce.
So it is with the ego. If looked for, it disappears. If not, it continues to give trouble.
Reality is simply the loss of the ego. Destroy the ego by seeking its identity. Because the ego is no entity
it will automatically vanish and reality will shine forth by
itself. This is the direct method. Whereas all other methods are done, only retaining the ego.
The unreality of the ego
30 Neither in this world nor anywhere else
does there exist for you a malevolent enemy like the ego.
31 Enquire within and know the source of the ego so that the ego departs and the experience of Atma-swarupa surges.
32 If you enquire within yourself and know the nature of the powerful ego-ghost, then, like the [presumed] best man, it will run away and disappear.
Bhagavan: In a Hindu marriage function, the feasts continue five or six days. A stranger was mistaken for the best man by the bride's party and they therefore treated him with special regard. Seeing him treated with special regard by the bride's party, the bridegroom's party considered him to be some man of importance related to the bride's party and therefore they too showed him special respect. The stranger had altogether a happy time of it.
He was also all along aware of the real situation. On one occasion the groom's party wanted to refer to him on some
point. They asked for him. He scented trouble and made
himself scarce.
So it is with the ego. If looked for, it disappears. If not, it continues to give trouble.
Reality is simply the loss of the ego. Destroy the ego by seeking its identity. Because the ego is no entity
it will automatically vanish and reality will shine forth by
itself. This is the direct method. Whereas all other methods are done, only retaining the ego.
M: No memory of past pleasure or pain is left. Each moment is newly born.
Q: Without memory you cannot be conscious.
M: Of course I am conscious, and fully aware of it. I am not a block of wood!
Compare consciousness and its content to a cloud. You are inside the cloud, while I look at. You are lost in it, hardly able to see the tips of your fingers, while I see the cloud and many other clouds and the blue sky too and the sun, the moon, the stars.
Reality is one for both of us, but for you it is a prison and for me it is a home.
Q: Without memory you cannot be conscious.
M: Of course I am conscious, and fully aware of it. I am not a block of wood!
Compare consciousness and its content to a cloud. You are inside the cloud, while I look at. You are lost in it, hardly able to see the tips of your fingers, while I see the cloud and many other clouds and the blue sky too and the sun, the moon, the stars.
Reality is one for both of us, but for you it is a prison and for me it is a home.
- All the answers you’re looking for are within you.
- Do not really look to a teacher for answers.
- You go to the teacher for grace, not for answers.
- Do not really look to a teacher for answers.
- You go to the teacher for grace, not for answers.
Knowing THAT which survives the annihilation of ‘I’ is alone the true Tapas!
UPADESA SARAM
The Essence of Instruction
10. Absorption in the Heart of being,
Whence we sprang,
Is the path of action, of devotion,
Of yoga and of knowledge.
11. Holding the breath controls the mind,
Like a bird caught in a net.
Breath-regulation helps
Absorption in the Heart.
12. Mind and breath (as thought and action)
Fork out like two branches.
But both spring
From a single root.
The Essence of Instruction
10. Absorption in the Heart of being,
Whence we sprang,
Is the path of action, of devotion,
Of yoga and of knowledge.
11. Holding the breath controls the mind,
Like a bird caught in a net.
Breath-regulation helps
Absorption in the Heart.
12. Mind and breath (as thought and action)
Fork out like two branches.
But both spring
From a single root.
Blindness, weakness and sharpness are conditions of the eye, due merely to its fitness or defectiveness; so are deafness, dumbness, etc., of the ear and so forth – but never of the Atman, the Knower.
The Primal Power dwells in all bodies in the form of Kundalini. It is like a sleeping snake coiled up. ‘You have been fast asleep, coiled up in Your abode of muladhara.’ In the path of Bhakti Yoga, the kundalini awakens rapidly. One cannot realize God unless the kundalini wakes up. Sing with full concentration, in solitude, without the knowledge of others.
So long as the ego exists, desires also undoubtedly remain. The Master will be your protector. You must live in a spirit of self-surrender to Him. Let Him do good to you if He so desires, or let Him drown you if that be His will. But you are to do only what is righteous, and that also according to the power He has given you.
Do your work, then step back.
The only path to serenity.
The only path to serenity.
One's greatest service
is to keep one's mind merged
in the indwelling Self
who is timeless awareness and Truth.
is to keep one's mind merged
in the indwelling Self
who is timeless awareness and Truth.
People should not worry as much about what they do but rather about what they are. If they and their ways are good, then their deeds are radiant. If you are righteous, then what you do will also be righteous. We should not think that holiness is based on what we do but rather on what we are, for it is not our works which sanctify us but we who sanctify our works.
In the dream state, even though there is no contact with the external world, the mind alone projects the entire dream-universe of enjoyer etc. Similarly, the waking-state is no different. All this (world of myriad phenomena), is but a projection of the mind.
WORDS OF YOGASWAMI
Here (at the Sivathondan Nilayam) let there be no talk. People merely read what is in books and enjoy themselves lecturing other people. The others gain nothing by it.
God is with each one of us. Let each one obtain by himself what he needs.
I am Buddha and you are the Sangha. Buddha means the wise one.
The five senses are five brothers.
Today (a yajna day) is a day for exercise. I shall set fire to you and burn everyone of you!
Tell me who your friends are and I shall tell you who you are.
Only one free from desire has the right to grow a beard!
Don't do anything like that till you are free from desire.
I am a dog because I am grateful to the Creator.
Do not desire even the ecstasy of mukti. Besides, there is no ecstasy there!
You must live without being involved.
Here (at the Sivathondan Nilayam) let there be no talk. People merely read what is in books and enjoy themselves lecturing other people. The others gain nothing by it.
God is with each one of us. Let each one obtain by himself what he needs.
I am Buddha and you are the Sangha. Buddha means the wise one.
The five senses are five brothers.
Today (a yajna day) is a day for exercise. I shall set fire to you and burn everyone of you!
Tell me who your friends are and I shall tell you who you are.
Only one free from desire has the right to grow a beard!
Don't do anything like that till you are free from desire.
I am a dog because I am grateful to the Creator.
Do not desire even the ecstasy of mukti. Besides, there is no ecstasy there!
You must live without being involved.
No need to control breath; no need to do tapas, if you can see yourself everywhere. This is the secret of secret.
If one knows oneself not as the individual but as the supreme Self, one becomes free from fear. The entire universe is truly the Self. There exists nothing at all other than the Self. The enlightened person sees everything in the world as his own Self, just as one views earthenware jars and pots as nothing but clay.
THE HOLIEST NAME OF GOD
In the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad there is a verse that describes how, at the beginning of the universe, the Self became aware of itself as 'I':
In the beginning this [universe] was the Self alone… He [the Self] reflected and saw nothing but the Self. He first said, 'I am He'. Therefore He came to be known by the name aham ['I'].(Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, tr. Swami Nikhilananda: from The Upanishads, vol. 3, 1975 ed., p. 11)
'I' thus became the first name of God. Bhagavan corroborated the sentiments expressed in this verse when he told a devotee, 'The one, infinite, unbroken whole [plenum] became aware of itself as ''I''. This is its original name. All other names, for example Om, are later growths.' (Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi, talk no. 9)
On another occasion Bhagavan, commenting on this famous verse from the Upanishads, explained how, due to a felicitous combination of letters, the name aham not only denoted the subjective nature of God but also implied that it encompassed and constituted all of the manifest universe:
The talk then turned to the name of God and Bhagavan said, 'Talking of all mantras, the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad says 'aham' [I] is the first name of God. The first letter in Sanskrit is 'A' and the last letter 'Ha' and 'aha' thus includes everything from beginning to end. The word ayam means 'that which exists', Self-shining and Self-evident. Ayam, atma and aham all refer to the same thing . (Day by Day with Bhagavan, 22nd November 1945)
The name aham merely indicates that God experiences himself subjectively as 'I'. When one adds the word 'am' to the name there is the further implication that God is, that God is being itself. Bhagavan expounded on this idea in Guru Vachaka Kovai and then went on to say that 'I am' is not merely the first name of God, it is also the most appropriate:
Since along with 'I', the aforementioned first name [mentioned in the previous verse], 'am' always shines as the light of reality, 'I am' is also the name. Among the many thousands of names of God, no name suits God, who abides in the Heart, devoid of thought, so aptly as 'I' or 'I am'. Of all the known names of God, 'I', 'I' alone will resound triumphantly when the ego is destroyed, rising as the silent supreme word [mauna para vak] in the Heart-space of those whose attention is Selfward-facing.(Guru Vachaka Kovai, vv. 713-5)
In the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad there is a verse that describes how, at the beginning of the universe, the Self became aware of itself as 'I':
In the beginning this [universe] was the Self alone… He [the Self] reflected and saw nothing but the Self. He first said, 'I am He'. Therefore He came to be known by the name aham ['I'].(Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, tr. Swami Nikhilananda: from The Upanishads, vol. 3, 1975 ed., p. 11)
'I' thus became the first name of God. Bhagavan corroborated the sentiments expressed in this verse when he told a devotee, 'The one, infinite, unbroken whole [plenum] became aware of itself as ''I''. This is its original name. All other names, for example Om, are later growths.' (Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi, talk no. 9)
On another occasion Bhagavan, commenting on this famous verse from the Upanishads, explained how, due to a felicitous combination of letters, the name aham not only denoted the subjective nature of God but also implied that it encompassed and constituted all of the manifest universe:
The talk then turned to the name of God and Bhagavan said, 'Talking of all mantras, the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad says 'aham' [I] is the first name of God. The first letter in Sanskrit is 'A' and the last letter 'Ha' and 'aha' thus includes everything from beginning to end. The word ayam means 'that which exists', Self-shining and Self-evident. Ayam, atma and aham all refer to the same thing . (Day by Day with Bhagavan, 22nd November 1945)
The name aham merely indicates that God experiences himself subjectively as 'I'. When one adds the word 'am' to the name there is the further implication that God is, that God is being itself. Bhagavan expounded on this idea in Guru Vachaka Kovai and then went on to say that 'I am' is not merely the first name of God, it is also the most appropriate:
Since along with 'I', the aforementioned first name [mentioned in the previous verse], 'am' always shines as the light of reality, 'I am' is also the name. Among the many thousands of names of God, no name suits God, who abides in the Heart, devoid of thought, so aptly as 'I' or 'I am'. Of all the known names of God, 'I', 'I' alone will resound triumphantly when the ego is destroyed, rising as the silent supreme word [mauna para vak] in the Heart-space of those whose attention is Selfward-facing.(Guru Vachaka Kovai, vv. 713-5)
----- You are the answer -----
Oh there are things that you have to give up physically also.
If you find you’re on drugs, you drink too much, if you have bad habits, you have to work on yourself to an extent.
You work on yourself by practicing self-inquiry.
Who needs these habits?
Who needs to get high on drugs?
Who needs a drink to relax them?
Who needs to be entertained by the TV or the radio, or anything else?
Who needs these things?
Realizing all the time it was the ‘I’.
The ‘I’ was fooling you all of these years.
By making you believe that if you find the right mate, if you find the right guru, if you find the right book, if you find the right state to live in, right country, the right friend you will be happy.
But as we learn by experience this is not the answer.
The answer is within yourself.
You are the answer.
T. 141 Spiritual Life is Not a Bed of Roses (Empty Mind) - March 29, 1992
Oh there are things that you have to give up physically also.
If you find you’re on drugs, you drink too much, if you have bad habits, you have to work on yourself to an extent.
You work on yourself by practicing self-inquiry.
Who needs these habits?
Who needs to get high on drugs?
Who needs a drink to relax them?
Who needs to be entertained by the TV or the radio, or anything else?
Who needs these things?
Realizing all the time it was the ‘I’.
The ‘I’ was fooling you all of these years.
By making you believe that if you find the right mate, if you find the right guru, if you find the right book, if you find the right state to live in, right country, the right friend you will be happy.
But as we learn by experience this is not the answer.
The answer is within yourself.
You are the answer.
T. 141 Spiritual Life is Not a Bed of Roses (Empty Mind) - March 29, 1992
When you are without thoughts, when you are without needs, without wants, without desires, then you are God.
You are the universe.
You are divine love.
You are beautiful.
Yet when you begin to think about these things you deny it, for you think about the past and the future instead of staying centered in the eternal now.
You think of the mistakes you made in life.
You think about the dastardly things going on in this world.
You think about your future, about the so called recession.
You are enmeshed in maya.
Do not continue to think this way.
T. 112 All is Well - November 17, 199
You are the universe.
You are divine love.
You are beautiful.
Yet when you begin to think about these things you deny it, for you think about the past and the future instead of staying centered in the eternal now.
You think of the mistakes you made in life.
You think about the dastardly things going on in this world.
You think about your future, about the so called recession.
You are enmeshed in maya.
Do not continue to think this way.
T. 112 All is Well - November 17, 199
Did you ever say yes to pleasure? Then you also said yes to pain. All things are linked, entwined, in love with one another.
Be brave enough to live creatively. The creative is the place where no one else has ever been. You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. You cannot get there by bus, only by hard work, risking and by not quite knowing what you are doing. What you will discover will be wonderful: yourself.
Beings
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