There was once a man meditating for along time in one position in the middle of the forest. One day he noticed a creeper next to him that was growing up a small plant instead of growing up him. So, he thought,”This simple creeper has no trust in me, and she has trust in a plant because she knows that I am mobile and the plant is not. I will get up and she will break. She is wise to go up this small tree because the tree will not move away, it is stationary.”
Nobody in the world is wise like the creeper. They have faith in things that move away. They will lose their body and their life. You must learn from the creeper. Depend on something which is everlasting so that you are safe. Insecurity is depending on something insecure, something that will die or run away. Dont depend on such a person. If you want to be safe keep the eternal Happiness which is within you, close to you. Yearn only for Freedom always and you will always be in the Light.
~ Sri H.W.L.Poonja, Disciple of Sri Ramana Maharshi.
The Void or Pure Consciousness is or has been called Consciousness, which really means Undifferentiated Consciousness (no-subject object), or NO-I, the Void or underlying unity God, and the divine substance, etc.
Any word you use to describe it, IS NOT IT, nor does it adequately say what it is. Why? Because the underlying unity or Quantum Consciousness is not something out there but is here, there, everywhere. It is what everything is made of. Although there appears to be one or more substances, things, objects, events, perceivers, GODS, etc, in actuality, this an illusion, a mirage – there is only THAT ONE SUBSTANCE and YOU and I AM THAT.
~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj.
The biggest impediment to the appreciation of what-we-are is the difficulty of abondoning the concept of a live-er of life and a die-er of death, as a factual entity. All there is, is living and die-ing, one being the absence of the other. Living is the appearance in space-time of the manifestation of what-we-are, and dying is its dis-appearance. What-we-are is ‘Unbroken Wholeness.’ What-we-are can neither live nor die.
~Ramesh S. Balsekar, Disciple of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
As the spider weaves its thread out of its own mouth, plays with it and then withdraws it again into itself, so the eternal unchangeable Lord, who is without form, without attributes, who is absolute knowledge and absolute bliss, evolves the whole universe out of Himself, plays with it for a while, and again withdraws it into Himself.
~Bhagavatam
If effort is needed at all, it is certainly not in order to see the simple truth that the Master has given us, but to disabuse ourselves of the educational conditioning we have received ever since we became conscious of ourselves. And that is the difference between enlightenment and deliverance – the period of dis-identification from what we are not: we are not the doers of any happening.
~Ramesh S. Balsekar
The same thing can be both good and bad. Whenever you speak of good, bad is also present. The world is a mixture of both. There is not good without bad. They are both sides of the same coin. Both are necessary. We have been given free will and discriminating capacity to select what is beneficial to us and to avoid what is detrimental to us. Even Cobra poison can be used as medicine.
~Sri Satchidananda
Satchidananda alone is the Guru. If a man in the form of a guru awakens spiritual consciousness in you, then know for certain that it is God the Absolute who has assumed that human form for your sake. The guru is like a companion who leads you by the hand. After realising God, one loses the distinction between the guru and the disciple. The relationship between them remains as long as the disciple does not see God.
~Sri Ramakrishna
Read the great spiritual books of all the traditions, come to some understanding of what the Master might mean by liberation and enlightenment, and find out which approach to absolute reality really attracts and suits you most.
Exercise in your search as much discernment as you can; the spiritual path demands more intelligence, more sober understanding, more subtle powers of discrimination than any other discipline, because the highest truth is at stake. Use your common sense at every moment.
Come to the path as humorously aware as possible of the baggage you will be bringing with you: your lacks, fantasies, failings and projections. Blend, with a soaring awareness of what your true nature might be, a down-to-earth and level-headed humility, and a clear appreciation of where you are on your spiritual journey and what still remains to be understood and accomplished.
~ Sogyal Rinpoche, highly esteemed Tibetan Lama, author of The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying
Please note: The following passages are from the great Master, Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
Suffering is exclusively the result of attachment or resistance, it is a sign of lacking readiness to go on, to flow with life.
It’s the nature of thinking to differentiate things and specialize itself. There’s no harm to that, but it isn’t true when one thinks of oneself as separate from things. Things and humans are different, but not separate. Nature is one, reality is one. There are opposites, but no contradictions.
The real does not die, the unreal never lived. Set your mind right and all will be right. When you know that the world is one, that humanity is one, you will act accordingly. But first of all you must attend to the way you feel, think and live. Unless there is order in yourself, there can be no order in the world.
Absolute perfection is here and now, not in some future, near or far. The secret is in action – here and now. It is your behavior that blinds you to yourself. Disregard whatever you think yourself to be and act as if you were absolutely perfect – whatever your idea of perfection may be. All you need is courage.
Whenever love is withheld and suffering allowed to spread, war becomes inevitable. Our indifference to our neighbor’s sorrow brings suffering to our door.
The very search for pleasure is the cause of pain.
By all means be selfish; the right way. Wish yourself well, labor at what is good for you. Destroy all that stands between you and happiness. Be all; love all; be happy; make happy. No happiness is greater.
If you imagine yourself as separate from the world, the world will appear as separate from you and you will experience desire and fear. I do not see the world as separate from me and so there is nothing for me to desire, or fear.
Sayings from a Zen calendar:
“The Great Way is not difficult, for those who have no preferences.” – Sosan.
“The myriad worlds are like so much foam on the sea, old worthies and great sages merely flashes of lightning.” – Yung-Cha-Hsuan-Chueh.”
“Listen to the voice of the wind in the pines when no wind blows.” – Ryoko.
“One should know that the Perfect Wisdom is a great mantra, is the highest mantra, is the unequaled mantra, the destroyer of all suffering, the incorruptible truth.” – The Prajnaparamita Sutra
“Absolute unity with Mu (Nothingness), unthinking absorption in Mu – this is ripeness. – Yasutani Roshi.
“Teachers open the door, but you must enter by yourself.” – Chinese Proverb.
“We sit together, the mountain and me, until only the mountain remains.” – Li Po.
“All living beings are intrinsically enlightened as to the meaning of life and death; they are perfectly endowed with the wisdom and compassion of the Awakened Ones.” – The Buddha.
“Body free of dust, Mind without a care.” – Han Shan.
“When things happen, make no response: Keep your minds from dwelling on anything whatsoever.” – Hui Hai.
“When the moon of your mind becomes clouded over by confusion, you are searching for the light outside.” – Hozoin.
“Be empty, that is all.” – Chuang Tzu.
“You are all Buddhas. There is nothing that you need to achieve. Just open your eyes.” – The Buddha.
“It’s the rose’s unfolding, Ghalib, that creates the desire to see – In every colour and circumstance, may the eyes be open for what comes.” – Ghalib.
“Our body is the Bodhi-tree, and our mind a mirror bright.” – Shen Hsiu.
“Isn’t it interesting that our minds cannot stay still for longer than a few moments without grasping after distractions. We are fragmented into so many different aspects that we don’t know who we really are, or what aspects of ourselves we should identify with or believe in. So many contradictory voices, dictates and feelings fight for control over our inner lives that we find ourselves scattered in all directions. Only in the stillness and silence of meditation, can we glimpse and return to the sky-like nature of the soul’s unchanging pure awareness, that we have so long ago lost amid the busyness of our physical mind”. ~ Anon
“The Buddhist sangha (the Buddhist community of monks, nuns, novices, and laity) is a garden, full of many varieties of trees and flowers. When we can look at ourselves and at others as beautiful, unique flowers and trees we can truly grow to understand and love one another. One flower may bloom early in the spring and another flower may bloom in late summer. One tree may bare many fruits and another tree may offer cool shade. No one plant is greater, or lesser, or the same as any other plant in the garden. Each member of the sangha also has unique gifts to offer to the community. We each have areas that need attention as well. When we can appreciate each member’s contribution and see our weaknesses as potential for growth we can learn to live together harmoniously. Our practice is to see that we are a flower or a tree, and we are the whole garden as well, all interconnected”. ~ The Most Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh (Thây) Founder of the Unified Buddhist Church.
“Perhaps the deepest reason why we are afraid of death is because we do not know who we are. We believe in a personal, unique, and separate identity; but if we dare to examine it, we find that this identity depends entirely on an endless collection of things to prop it up: our name, our ‘biography’, our partners, family, home, job, friends, credit cards… It is on their fragile and transient support that we rely for our security. So when they are all taken away, will we have any idea of who we really are. Without our familiar props, we are faced with just ourselves, a person who we do not know, an unnerving stranger with whom we have been living all the time but we never really wanted to meet. Isn’t that why we have tried to fill every moment of time with noise and activity, however boring or trivial, to ensure that we are never left in silence with this stranger on our own?” – The Most Venerable Sogyal Rinpoche, author of The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying.
