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Every suffering is a Buddha seed

People come to me and ask why God created this suffering world. ”Why is there so much suffering if God is compassion?” Yes, God is compassion. Therefore, there is so much suffering. Unless you pass through suffering, you will not reach the ultimate ecstasy. It is a basic training. Unhappiness is a basic training for the ultimate flowering of happiness. Every suffering is a Buddha seed.
How can you reach ecstasy if you have not known agony? If you reach the world of ecstasy without knowing what agony is, you will not be able to recognize it. The recognition is impossible. Only through darkness can light be recognized. You may be living in light, but if you don’t know darkness, you cannot know that you are living in light. A fish in the sea cannot know that the sea exists. Only if the fish is thrown out of the sea, does it come to recognize the sea. If it is thrown back into the sea again, the fish will be totally different and the sea will be totally different to the fish. Now the fish will be able to recognize it.
The world is just a training ground.
You must be thrown deeply into matter.

~ Osho

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Sri Bhagavan

As time went by, people throughout the world came to know that Sri Bhagavan was the living embodiment of all that is taught in the Gita, Tirukkural, and Upanishads, and were attracted to His Feet. Forgetting the national differences such as Indian and foreigner and the religious differences such as Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, Jain and Sikh, from far and abroad they flocked to the Feet of Sri Bhagavan and adored Him, for such was their conviction that He was indeed the Guru of their own religion! Many among them achieved true knowledge, some by merely seeing Sri Bhagavan, some by living in His divine Presence, some by dedicating themselves wholeheartedly to His service, and some by following His teachings.

The former president of India, Mr. Rajendra Prasad, once went to the asramam of Mahatma Gandhi and said, “Bapuji, I have come to you for peace!” The abode of peace was known well to Gandhiji and hence he advised, “if you want peace, go to Sri Ramanasramam and remain for a few days in the presence of Sri Ramana Maharshi, without talking or asking any question.”

Mr. Rajandra Prasad accordingly arrived at Sri Ramanasramam on 14th August 1938. Though those who accompanied him spent their time in asking Sri Bhagavan questions regarding spiritual matters and in visiting all the places on the Hill where He had lived, Mr. Rajendra Prasad did not move away from the Presence of Sri Bhagavan. Besides, according to the advice of Gandhiji, he spent the whole of that week without raising any question or doubt.

At the time of his taking leave of Sri Bhagavan, he approached Him and humbly enquired, “O Bhagavan, it was Gandhiji himself who sent me here. Is there any message that I may take to him?”

Sri Bhagavan graciously answered :
“The same Power which works here is working there also! Where is the need for words when heart speaks to heart?”

These are unique words of wisdom revealing the secret that it is the one Supreme Thing alone that governs the whole universe through all the innumerable souls! Just like Rajendra Prasad and Gandhiji, all men of high position and power, all great poets, scholars, politicians, philosophers and religious leaders who lived in our country during His time praised the glory of His Jnana.

– The Path of Sri Ramana – Part One book

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Virtuous and non-virtuous actions

The magnitude of positive and negative actions does not depend upon how they appear from outside. It is easy to accumulate great positive karma or great negative karma with a small action. It all depends upon our intention or attitude.

For example, to help someone in a small way, but with great loving-kindness, will accumulate a lot of positive karma. Likewise, a single word, easily uttered, may accumulate boundless negative karma if, for instance, it is used to criticize a Bodhisattva.

The general condition of beings in samsara is one of delusion, a state that always produces suffering. So if we ignore our negative actions, and do nothing to purify, confess and repair them, we shall gradually accumulate negative karma. We shall not be able to receive the blessings of the Buddhas and spiritual teachers, neither shall we be able to develop spiritual experience and realization.

We need, therefore, to be constantly aware and mindful of the difference between virtuous and non-virtuous actions, to cultivate the former and avoid the latter.

– Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

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Cultivate ”The balance of the dying one”

A beginner must learn to cultivate what is called ’the balance of the dying one.’ What is this balance? It is the balance between knowing what is important and what is not, and accepting and forgiving.

Anyone who has ever been at the bedside of a dying person will understand this calm. What would the dying person do if someone insulted them? Nothing.
What would the dying person do if someone struck them? Nothing.
Lying there, would they have any intention of becoming famous or rich? No.
If someone who had wronged them asked for forgiveness, would they not grant it? Of course they would.

A dying person knows the futility of enmity. Hatred is always such a miserable feeling. Who wants to die with hatred in their heart? No one. The dying seek love and peace.

— Xuyun

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Knowing the real nature of the mind

Q: Worries of worldly life trouble me much, and I do not find happiness anywhere.

M: Do these worries trouble you in sleep?

Q: No.

M: Are you the same person now as you were in sleep, or are you not?

Q: Yes.

M: So, it proves that the worries do not belong to you.

Those who believe the mind to be real will not be able to subdue it. In the state in which the mind appears to be real, the thief [the mind] cheats by putting on the dress of the policeman [in order to pretend to catch himself]. Hence, we must know how to destroy the mind by knowing its real nature.

People ask me how to control the mind. The answer is, ‘Show me the mind’. It is but a bundle of thoughts. How will the mind, which is a collection of thoughts, come under control by a thought of controlling it? Reach its source, therefore. Seek the Atman. All misery will come to an end if you turn your mind inwards. If you feel that the world is created by the imagination of the individual soul, then that imagination must be given up. If you think that God has created the world, then surrender to Him all your responsibilities and leave the burden of the whole world to Him.

– Sri Ramana Maharshi

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Your mind is all stories

Dipa Ma did not say that the mind is mostly stories; she said that there is nothing in the mind but stories. These are the personal dramas that create and maintain the sense of individual identity: who we are, what we do, what we are and are not capable of. Without our being aware of it, the endless series of such thoughts drives and limits our lives. And yet those stories are without substance capable of. Without our being aware of it, the endless series of such thoughts drives and limits our lives. And yet those stories are without substance.

Dipa Ma challenged students’ beliefs in their stories, their attachment to the stories. When someone said, ”I can’t do that,” she would ask, ”Are you sure?” or ”Who says?” or ”Why not?

She encouraged students to observe the stories, to see their emptiness, and to go beyond the limitations they impose.
“Let go of thinking,” she urged. ”Meditation is not about thinking.”

At the same time, Dipa Ma taught that the mind is not an enemy to be gotten rid of. Rather, in the process of befriending the mind, in getting to know and accept it, it ceases to be a problem. Dipa Ma knew the freedom that follows that process; she lived in a state of thought-free awareness.

In a group interview, Jack Kornfield innocently asked, ”What is it like in your mind?”

Dipa Ma smiled, closed her eyes, and quietly answered,
”In my mind, there are three things: concentration, loving-kindness, and peace.”

Jack, not sure if he had heard correctly, asked, ”Is that all?”
“Yes, that is all,” Dipa Ma replied.


– Dipa Ma: The Life and Legacy of a Buddhist Master

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Abide in the heart and surrender your acts to the Divine

Place your burden at the feet of the Lord of the universe who is ever victorious and accomplishes everything. Remain all the time steadfast in the heart, in the Transcendental Absolute. God knows the past, present and future. He will determine the future for you and accomplish the work. What is to be done will be done at the proper time. Don’t worry. Abide in the heart and surrender your acts to the Divine.

Sri Ramana Maharshi

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Living out the Buddha-Dharma

The eyes don’t say, “Sure we’re lower, but we see more.”
The eyebrows don’t reply, “Sure we don’t see anything, but we are higher up.”

Living out the buddha-dharma means fulfilling your function completely without knowing that you’re doing it. A mountain doesn’t know it’s tall. The sea doesn’t know it’s wide and deep. Each and every thing in the universe is active without knowing it.

The bird’s singing and the flower’s laughter appear naturally,
completely independent from the person sitting in zazen at the foot of the cliff.

The bird doesn’t sing in honor of the person in zazen. The flower doesn’t blossom to amaze the person with her beauty. In exactly the same way, the person doesn’t sit in zazen in order to get satori. Every single being simply realizes the self, through the self, for the self.

– Kodo Sawaki, ’To You’

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Our real nature

Our real nature is mukti (Liberation). But we are imagining we are bound and are making various, strenuous attempts to become free, while we are all the while free. This will be understood only when we reach that stage. We will be surprised that we were frantically trying to attain something which we have always been and are.

– Sri Ramana Maharshi