You are already the Self. Therefore realization is common to everyone. Realization knows no difference in the aspirants. This very doubt, "Can I realize?" or the feeling, "I have not realized" are the obstacles. Be free from these also.
Q: Is it desirable to want to see God?
Annamalai Swami: Manikkavachagar said in one of his songs: 'God is not a person, nor is He any particular thing. Yet without God there is nothing because He alone is everything.'
To see one's Self and to see this same Self as all that is, that is seeing God.
Q: So is it better to want only the formless Self?
AS: I once heard Bhagavan say to Paul Brunton: 'If you do upasana [meditation] on the all-pervading Self, you will get infinite energy.' All beings, all things, all people in the world are your own Self. They are all indivisibly part of you. If you can see all as your Self, how can you do harm to anyone else? When you have that clear vision, whatever you do to others, you know that it is done to your Self only.
To like one thing instead of another is samsara: to like and love all things is wisdom. If one sees from this realisation that all are one's own Self, one enjoys the same peace that one enjoys in the deep-sleep state. The difference is, one enjoys it here and now while one is awake.
Annamalai Swami: Manikkavachagar said in one of his songs: 'God is not a person, nor is He any particular thing. Yet without God there is nothing because He alone is everything.'
To see one's Self and to see this same Self as all that is, that is seeing God.
Q: So is it better to want only the formless Self?
AS: I once heard Bhagavan say to Paul Brunton: 'If you do upasana [meditation] on the all-pervading Self, you will get infinite energy.' All beings, all things, all people in the world are your own Self. They are all indivisibly part of you. If you can see all as your Self, how can you do harm to anyone else? When you have that clear vision, whatever you do to others, you know that it is done to your Self only.
To like one thing instead of another is samsara: to like and love all things is wisdom. If one sees from this realisation that all are one's own Self, one enjoys the same peace that one enjoys in the deep-sleep state. The difference is, one enjoys it here and now while one is awake.
Do not be obsessed by egotism, imagining that you are the cause of action: everything is due to God.
Life is in charge.
We can fight it and be miserable or surrender to it and laugh at our own arrogance and ideas of what should be.
We can fight it and be miserable or surrender to it and laugh at our own arrogance and ideas of what should be.
At the moment, we are all caught in the state of delusion, and so we should acknowledge all the negative actions we have perpetrated throughout our many lives until the present time. And from now on, we should turn away from all such actions big or small, just as we would avoid getting thorns in our eyes. We should constantly be checking what we do: any negative action should be confessed immediately, and all positive actions dedicated to others. To the best of our ability, we should abandon wrongdoing and try to accumulate goodness.
No one was ever really taught by another; each of us has to teach himself. The external teacher offers only the suggestion which rouses the internal teacher to work to understand things.
Even faith in God is only a stage on the way. Ultimately, you abandon all, for you come to something so simple that there are no words to express it.
Enlightenment is permanent because we have not produced it; we have merely discovered it.
Be still and stay relaxed in genuine ease, be quiet and let sound reverberate as an echo, keep your mind silent and watch the ending of all worlds.
No thought has any power. You have power. And when you identify and believe in the thought you give power to the thought.
The sum total is, whatever experiences you have, whether for a day or for years, it is all an illusion.
The world is like a sheet of paper on which something is typed. The
reading and the meaning will vary with the reader, but the paper is
the common factor, always present, rarely perceived. When the ribbon
is removed, typing leaves no trace on the paper. So is my mind - the
impressions keep on coming, but no trace is left.
reading and the meaning will vary with the reader, but the paper is
the common factor, always present, rarely perceived. When the ribbon
is removed, typing leaves no trace on the paper. So is my mind - the
impressions keep on coming, but no trace is left.
There should not be even an iota of the sense that 'I am the doer,' 'I have done,' 'I do,' etc.
It is possible to live twenty-four hours a day in a state of love. Every movement, every glance, every thought, and every word can be infused with love.
Love is an annihilating force, like death. Love is not weak, it is surrendered & strong. It can bear & face anything.
No two fruits are alike. Yet it is one life that throbs in every particle of the tree. So, it is the same Atman everywhere.
You can leave me. I won’t leave you. Once I catch hold of you, I don’t let go.
The Seeing Self is the Eye, and that Eye is the Eye of Infinity.
You are the Buddha itself slowly undressing himself of all conceptual garments.
How long will it take you?
Then at some point you'll look at me and you'll tell me, "There are no garments. There's no undressing now. There's nothing at all."
How long will it take you?
Then at some point you'll look at me and you'll tell me, "There are no garments. There's no undressing now. There's nothing at all."
Don't waste time in seeking little things. Naturally it is easier to get other gifts from God than the supreme gift of Himself. But don't be satisfied with anything less than the highest.
Student: I've heard it said that the ego must die in order to be enlightened. What does ego death mean?
Adyashanti: It is said that the ego must die in order for you to truly live. But nothing need die; you simply need to grow up. A child does not die in order to grow into an adult. The child simply grows up; it evolves and leaves behind what is no longer appropriate. See that the ego is no longer useful or appropriate and leave it behind. Only the ego makes its own demise seem dramatic.
Adyashanti: It is said that the ego must die in order for you to truly live. But nothing need die; you simply need to grow up. A child does not die in order to grow into an adult. The child simply grows up; it evolves and leaves behind what is no longer appropriate. See that the ego is no longer useful or appropriate and leave it behind. Only the ego makes its own demise seem dramatic.
Try to cultivate a mind that never harms any being in thoughts, word, or deed.
Whatever the Buddha has done it's in your capacity, in your potential. You are the Buddha itself slowly undressing himself of all conceptual garments. How long will it take you? Then at some point you'll look at me and you'll tell me, "There are no garments. There's no undressing now. There's nothing at all." Oh that's very happy.
Life presents you with two options let's say: to go out in the world and make a success of the life and be like other people and be accepted or whatever your projection is about that, or something is calling you to just come into a more meditative life and give more attention to your inner being. There seems to be these two and for awhile and they are living attractions for you. Now you're being aware, but you are neither of them. Now you're being aware, "I am neither of them," and a choice need not be made. I am neither, I simply Am.
And through whatever it is the attention goes to these choices so the movement is pulling toward one of these directions. This is ok, but what is it that is aware of all the directions?
Then it's like looking into a mirror, and you're Here again.
And through whatever it is the attention goes to these choices so the movement is pulling toward one of these directions. This is ok, but what is it that is aware of all the directions?
Then it's like looking into a mirror, and you're Here again.
Real sadhana actually is that in open listening, without the intrusion of the speculative habit, is simultaneous with inner recognition and confirming, which by-passes even practice. Because the Self cannot be practiced! It must be already here. All this is is pulling the curtains, peeling away this cataract of illusory identification.
Once you have understood the union of emptiness and the dependent arising of phenomena, you will see clearly how deluded and deceiving the ways of the world really are, and, like an old man forced to play children’s games, you will find them very tiresome. When you have realized the utter foolishness of spending your life attached to friends and scheming to subdue your enemies and competitors, you will find it tedious. Once you have been struck by the pointlessness of letting yourself be forever influenced and conditioned by your habitual tendencies, you will become sick of it...
That will inspire you to strive towards liberation — and by striving for it, you will attain it.
That will inspire you to strive towards liberation — and by striving for it, you will attain it.