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When the Zen Master attained Enlightenment he wrote the following lines to celebrate it:
“Oh wondrous marvel:
I chop wood!
I draw water from the well!”
After enlightenment nothing really changes. The tree is still a tree; people are just what they were before; and so are you. You may continue to be as moody or eventempered,as wise or foolish. The one difference is that you see things with a different eye. You are more detached from it all now. And your heart is full of wonder. That is the essence of Contemplation: the Sense of Wonder. Contemplation is different from ecstasy in that ecstasy leads to withdrawal. The enlightened contemplative continues to chop wood and draw water from the well. Contemplation is different from the perception of beauty in that the perception of beauty (a painting or a sunset) produces aesthetic delight, whereas contemplation produces wonder—no matter what it observes, a sunset or a stone. This is the prerogative of children. They are often in a state of wonder. So they easily slip into the Kingdom.
“Oh wondrous marvel:
I chop wood!
I draw water from the well!”
After enlightenment nothing really changes. The tree is still a tree; people are just what they were before; and so are you. You may continue to be as moody or eventempered,as wise or foolish. The one difference is that you see things with a different eye. You are more detached from it all now. And your heart is full of wonder. That is the essence of Contemplation: the Sense of Wonder. Contemplation is different from ecstasy in that ecstasy leads to withdrawal. The enlightened contemplative continues to chop wood and draw water from the well. Contemplation is different from the perception of beauty in that the perception of beauty (a painting or a sunset) produces aesthetic delight, whereas contemplation produces wonder—no matter what it observes, a sunset or a stone. This is the prerogative of children. They are often in a state of wonder. So they easily slip into the Kingdom.
We must allow ourselves to be disappointed, which means the surrendering of me-ness, my achievement. We would like to watch ourselves attain enlightenment, watch our disciples celebrating, worshipping, throwing flowers at us, with miracles and earthquakes occuring and gods and angels singing and so forth. This never happens. The attainment of enlightenment from ego’s point of view is extreme death, the death of self, the death of me and mine, the death of the watcher. It is the ultimate and final disappointment. Treading the spiritual path is painful. It is a constant unmasking, peeling off of layer after layer of masks. It involves insult after insult.
A person begins with dissatisfaction. Not content with the world he seeks satisfaction of desires by prayers to God; his mind is purified; he longs to know God more than to satisfy his carnal desires. Then God’s Grace begins to manifest. God takes the form of a Guru and appears to the devotee; teaches him the Truth; purifies the mind by his teachings and contact; the mind gains strength, is able to turn inward; with meditation it is purified yet further, and eventually remains still without the least ripple. That stillness is the Self.
The Guru is both exterior and interior. From the exterior he gives a push to the mind to turn inward; from the interior he pulls the mind towards the Self and helps the mind to achieve quietness. That is Grace.
Hence there is no difference between God, Guru and Self.
The Guru is both exterior and interior. From the exterior he gives a push to the mind to turn inward; from the interior he pulls the mind towards the Self and helps the mind to achieve quietness. That is Grace.
Hence there is no difference between God, Guru and Self.
Multi are His forms, many are His ways, and millions are His faces. One has to learn to recognize Him in whatsoever form He comes. He will try to deceive you but you are not to be deceived. When He comes as sadness, remember that is also His image. Maybe this is needed right now.
The experience of Vedanta is possible only for those who have completely given up all desires. For the desirous it is far away, and they should therefore try to rid themselves of all other desires by the desire for God, who is free from desires.
Self-realization means I am completely full, I don't want to know anything, I don't require anything at all now.
Whatever name you give it: will, or steady purpose, or one-pointedness of mind, you come back to earnestness, sincerity, honesty. When you are in dead earnest, you bend every incident, every second of your life to your purpose. You do not waste time and energy on other things. You are totally dedicated, call it will, or love, or plain honesty. We are complex beings, at war within and without. We contradict ourselves all the time, undoing today the work of yesterday. No wonder we are stuck. A little of integrity would make a lot of difference.
Most people tell you they want to get out of kindergarten, but don't believe them. Don't believe them! All they want you to do is to mend their broken toys. "Give me back my wife. Give me back my job. Give me back my money. Give me back my reputation, my success." This is what they want; they want their toys replaced. That's all. Even the best psychologist will tell you that, that people don't really want to be cured. What they want is relief; a cure is painful.
In Me, the limitless ocean,
let the waves of the universe arise,
and then disappear according to their inherent nature.
I experience neither any expansion, nor any contraction.
let the waves of the universe arise,
and then disappear according to their inherent nature.
I experience neither any expansion, nor any contraction.
When you have understood that all existence, in separation and limitation, is painful, and when you are willing and able to live integrally, in oneness with all life, as pure being, you have gone beyond the need of help. You can help another by precept and example and, above all, by your being. You cannot give what you do not have and you don't have what you are not.
For a realised being the Self alone is the Reality, and actions are only phenomenal, not affecting the Self. Even when he acts he has no sense of being an agent. His actions are only involuntary and he remains a witness to them without any attachment.
An awakening experience reveals that all there IS is awake presence - no-thing and every-thing simultaneously. So therefore, the 'personality' is effectively a 'ghost construct' revealed to have no real substance. However, unless the conditioned programming (that effectively makes up this ghost construct) is explored deeply and seen for what it is, the invisible effects of this 'non-existent (!)' construct will continue to contaminate - and therefore 'haunt' all manner of experience.
I have found both freedom
and safety
in my madness;
the freedom of loneliness
and the safety
from being understood,
for those who understand us
enslave something in us.
and safety
in my madness;
the freedom of loneliness
and the safety
from being understood,
for those who understand us
enslave something in us.
The mind of the Sage is dead, it does not mean that His mental faculty is in any way impaired. If he looks at the calendar he can tell the date like any one else. It only means that the mental faculty no longer acts as the ruler of the other faculties, regretting the past, hoping, fearing, exulting.
Trust yourself. At the root, at the core, there is pure sanity, pure openness. Don’t trust what you have been taught, what you think, what you believe, what you hope. Deeper than that, trust the silence of your being.
Abhyasa [spiritual practice] consists in withdrawal within the Self every time you are disturbed by thought. It is not concentration or destruction of the mind but withdrawal into the Self.
Look. This little finger covers the eye and prevents the whole world from being seen. In the same way this small mind covers the whole universe and prevents Reality from being seen.
Thoughts are impediments to seeing your deepest nature. Don't give rise to any thought, and discover who you are. That ocean of eternal peace is you. What is the difficulty that we suffer from? It is that we seek peace elsewhere and do not experience that we are peace incarnate itself.
You say you want to find the Truth, that all you want now is freedom, but that it is so difficult. So I ask you now: Who is speaking here?
Who is speaking in your name? Is this really you?
Can it be the Truth that is saying all this?
The one that tries to get there, this voice nobody questions…
Something is saying, ‘I’m trying and I’m trying and I just can’t find It.’
But there is awareness of this voice, you see? It is seen.
At the final stages of the inquiry, these voices appear as the last bodyguards of this glass house of ego, this crystal palace. But they too, are seen.
The one that says, ‘All I want is to be that consciousness,’
and everybody goes: ‘So do we.’ Isn’t all this seen?
And where is it seen from, and by whom?
Verbal or mental answers cannot do. Answers are seen also.
Questions also are seen.
Actions are seen.
Desire is seen.
Body is seen.
The sense of stuckness is seen.
Blank is seen.
‘I’ is also seen.
I could go on and on like this.
Which means what?
You have to be evolved enough to recognise and confirm that you, the Seer, is nothing tangible, nothing phenomenal. What are you expecting to happen? What are you waiting for? Whatever that is or could be, will it be seen?
Who is speaking in your name? Is this really you?
Can it be the Truth that is saying all this?
The one that tries to get there, this voice nobody questions…
Something is saying, ‘I’m trying and I’m trying and I just can’t find It.’
But there is awareness of this voice, you see? It is seen.
At the final stages of the inquiry, these voices appear as the last bodyguards of this glass house of ego, this crystal palace. But they too, are seen.
The one that says, ‘All I want is to be that consciousness,’
and everybody goes: ‘So do we.’ Isn’t all this seen?
And where is it seen from, and by whom?
Verbal or mental answers cannot do. Answers are seen also.
Questions also are seen.
Actions are seen.
Desire is seen.
Body is seen.
The sense of stuckness is seen.
Blank is seen.
‘I’ is also seen.
I could go on and on like this.
Which means what?
You have to be evolved enough to recognise and confirm that you, the Seer, is nothing tangible, nothing phenomenal. What are you expecting to happen? What are you waiting for? Whatever that is or could be, will it be seen?
WHAT DO WE SEEK?
When I first came to Bhagavan and heard him repeating constantly that everyone must eventually come to the path of self-enquiry, I wondered whether he was being partial to his own teaching, but I soon understood why he insisted that this is so. The final goal is only oneness, and to experience oneness our mind must subside, which will happen entirely only when we attend to nothing other than ourself.
So long as we attend to anything other than ourself, our mind cannot subside, because attention to other things sustains it, since that which experiences otherness is only this mind. When the mind subsides completely, only self-attention remains, and self-attention alone is the state of absolute oneness. Bhagavan used to repeat this teaching every day, maybe ten or twenty times, but still we didn’t change. He didn’t change his teaching either, because to him this truth was so clear.
When I first came to Bhagavan and heard him repeating constantly that everyone must eventually come to the path of self-enquiry, I wondered whether he was being partial to his own teaching, but I soon understood why he insisted that this is so. The final goal is only oneness, and to experience oneness our mind must subside, which will happen entirely only when we attend to nothing other than ourself.
So long as we attend to anything other than ourself, our mind cannot subside, because attention to other things sustains it, since that which experiences otherness is only this mind. When the mind subsides completely, only self-attention remains, and self-attention alone is the state of absolute oneness. Bhagavan used to repeat this teaching every day, maybe ten or twenty times, but still we didn’t change. He didn’t change his teaching either, because to him this truth was so clear.
Human beings have a drive for security and safety, which is often what fuels the spiritual search. This very drive for security and safety is what causes so much misery and confusion. Freedom is a state of complete and absolute insecurity and not knowing. There is no security in freedom, at least not in the sense that we normally think of security. This is, of course, why it is so free: there's nothing there to grab hold of.
When you rest deeply in the Unknown without trying to escape, your experience becomes very vast. The Unknown is more vast, more open, more peaceful, and more freeing than you ever imagined it would be.
When you rest deeply in the Unknown without trying to escape, your experience becomes very vast. The Unknown is more vast, more open, more peaceful, and more freeing than you ever imagined it would be.
Peace of mind produces right values, right values produce right thoughts. Right thoughts produce right actions and right actions produce work which will be a material reflection for others to see of the serenity at the center of it all.
The one who is free is free of any intention,
even the intention of freedom.
even the intention of freedom.
Inside this new love, die.
Your way begins on the other side.
Become the sky.
Take an ax to the prison wall.
Escape. Walk out
like someone suddenly born into color.
Do it now.
You’re covered with thick cloud.
Slide out the side. Die,
and be quiet. Quietness is the surest
sign that you’ve died.
Your old life was a frantic running
from silence.
The speechless full moon comes out now.
Your way begins on the other side.
Become the sky.
Take an ax to the prison wall.
Escape. Walk out
like someone suddenly born into color.
Do it now.
You’re covered with thick cloud.
Slide out the side. Die,
and be quiet. Quietness is the surest
sign that you’ve died.
Your old life was a frantic running
from silence.
The speechless full moon comes out now.
"Help us to find God."
"No one can help you there."
"Why not?"
"For the same reason that
no one can help the fish
to find the ocean."
"No one can help you there."
"Why not?"
"For the same reason that
no one can help the fish
to find the ocean."
When you drop all your ideas, fantasies and projections about who you are and what freedom is and remain completely empty, this is freedom.
Beings
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