What was never lost can never be found.
Your very search for safety and joy keeps you away from them.The seed of spiritual life grows in secret silence and darkness until its appointed hour of activation on the divine plane of existence beyond consciousness, mind and body.
– Nisargadatta Maharaj
Questioner: For a long time, I regarded Jesus Christ as my Savior. But for a while now, I have no longer been able to believe any of it. Perhaps I never truly believed it, but only wanted to believe. That is terrible. Please help me let go of this desperate desire to believe.
Anandamayi Ma: You must now learn to accept the inner emptiness and to live with it. Resist the temptation to fill it, for you would only be deceiving yourself. If you are patient, one day you will discover that Mahashunya (the great emptiness) is Christ itself. Then you will no longer be without him for even a single moment.
– Anandamayi Ma
Q: How is it possible to become selfless while leading a life of worldly activity?
Sri Ramana Maharshi : There is no conflict between work and wisdom.
Q: Do you mean that one can continue all the old activities in one’s profession, for instance, and at the same time get enlightenment ?
Sri Ramana Maharshi: Why not ?
But in that case one will not think that it is the old personality which is doing the work, because one’s consciousness will gradually become transferred until it is centered in that which is beyond the little self.Q: If a person is engaged in work, there will be little time left for him to meditate.
Sri Ramana Maharshi : Setting apart time for meditation is only for the merest spiritual novices.
A man who is advancing will begin to enjoy the deeper beatitude whether he is at work or not.
While his hands are in society, he keeps his head cool in solitude.Q: Then you do not teach the way of yoga?
Sri Ramana Maharshi : The yogi tries to drive his mind to the goal, as a cowherd drives a bull with a stick, but on this path the seeker coaxes the bull by holding out a handful of grass.
Q: How is that done?
Sri Ramana Maharshi : You have to ask yourself the question `Who am I ?’ This investigation will lead in the end to the discovery of something within you which is behind the mind.
Solve that great problem and you will solve all other problems.
– Sri Ramana Maharshi
The Buddha-dharma is immeasurable and unlimited. How could it ever have been made to fit into your categories?
No matter what you are grasping for, it’s limited.
In any case, only things for ordinary people can be grasped. Grasping for money, clinging to health, being attached to position and title, grasping for satori – everything you grasp only becomes the property of an ordinary person.
Letting go of ordinary people’s property – that’s what it means to be a Buddha.
– Kodo Sawaki, ’To You’
The sound Om is Brahman. The rishis and sages practised austerity to realize that Sound-Brahman. After attaining perfection one hears the sound of this eternal Word rising spontaneously from the navel.
‘What will you gain’, some sages ask, ’by merely hearing this sound?’ You hear the roar of the ocean from a distance. By following the roar you can reach the ocean. As long as there is the roar, there must also be the ocean. By following the trail of Om you attain Brahman, of which the Word is the symbol. That Brahman has been described by the Vedas as the ultimate goal. But such vision is not possible as long as you are conscious of your ego. A man realizes Brahman only when he feels neither ’I’ nor ’you’, neither ’one’ nor ’many’.
– Sri Ramakrishna
God is one’s very own Self, the breath of one’s breath, the life of one’s life, the Atma.
Not until his true Self has been revealed to him may a seeker ever relax his search. By seeking, one will find the Self is within one’s own grasp. To feel fatigued, exhausted, because one has not found Him is a very good sign indeed.
It indicates that one is nearing the purification of one’s heart and mind.
– Anandamayi Māa
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
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
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
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
