Sann verklighet (sat-cit-ananda) kan inte avstås. Insikten ska ske antingen via inquiry till självet. Eller genom surrender. Det senare är att ”dö” fortfarande i livet för de flesta.
(jivanmukti)
After we have renounced whatever
Can be renounced, That which abides,
And cannot be renounced, is
True Being shining in the Heart,
The fount, the flood of Bliss.
~ Guru Vachaka Kovai (Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi’s Teachings presented by Sri Muruganar)
Meditation is not what you think. You sit in absolute silence and your mind starts going over all your movies. During that process, you become so familiar with the scripts you keep in your life that you end up getting sick of them. Then you realize that the person you think you are is nothing but a complicated script you spend most of your energy on. After a more thorough examination, you discover your personality disgusts you.
And that’s because it’s not really you. If you feel terrified enough about that personality, you spontaneously allow it to fade away. And then, if you’re lucky, you can experience yourself without the distortion of that personality.
~ Leonard Cohen
All our different activities are projections of the mind, created by our thoughts. If you follow these deluded thoughts, there will be no end to your mind being upset by delusion, just as when the wind blows over the surface of a lake, the crystal clarity of the water is masked by ripples. It is therefore important to control the mind by applying the view, meditation, and action, both in meditation and in postmeditation, for major situations and minor ones.
– Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
from the book ”Zurchungpa’s Testament”
Meditate alone. Get lost. And don’t try to remember where you have been. If you try to remember it then it will be something that is dead. And if you hold on to the memory of it then you will never be alone again. So meditate in that endless solitude, in the beauty of that love, in that innocency, in the new; then there is the bliss that is imperishable.
— Krishnamurti
Everybody knows and feels that he exists. There cannot be any time when a person feels, ”I do not exist”. Hence the main inherent attribute of the Self is ’Awareness of existence’ or ’Awareness and Existence (Chit and Sat)’ – ie. ’I AM’. As there is no doubt in anyone’s mind about one’s being or existence, it should be possible for one to practise daily for some time to remain merged in the feeling of ”amness” or ”existence” to the exclusion of all
thoughts, just like a new born baby.A baby which is just born has no vocabulary of any language and so cannot think of any object. One has to think in one language or other. So a child just born cannot have any thoughts. It can only feel. When once its basic need of hunger and thirst are satisfied, the only feeling the child will possibly have is the feeling or knowledge of being or amness.
The knowledge that someone or something else ’is’ or exists (say, my neighbour or a pot) is an indirect knowledge derived through my senses like my eye and established by the conditioning of my mind which has learnt about what is a pot and how it looks like,
etc. On the contrary, the fact that ’I AM’ is a direct knowledge which has come to me instinctively directly from the very EXISTENCE and not through my senses.Hence if a person manages initially to sit for a few hours daily directing his attention (through imagination) to the spiritual heart and get merged in the feeling of ”amness” or ”BEING” or ”I AM” like the newborn child, he is sure to get Self-Realisation.
One condition is that he should not think or repeat ”I AM” like a Mantra. Secondly, he should not add any more qualifications to ”I AM” – like, ’I am a man’, ’I am 40 years old’, ’I am an Engineer’, etc.
A new born child cannot add or think of such epithets. One of the recent philosophers of repute, late Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj of ’I AM THAT’ fame has claimed that by adopting the process of ’I am’ as directed by his Guru, he had attained Self realisation (enlightenment) in three years’ time. This method of remaining in one’s being or Self is nothing but another version of the other method of enquiry as to, ”Who am I ?” advocated by Bhagavan Ramana.
Ramana Maharshi has said that, ”Even if he thinks constantly I-I, one will be led to that place”, ie. the source of ’I’ or mind. This method has also been advocated by Ashtavakra as an instant ’Moksha capsule’ .
”Bereft of the body-sense, if you can remain resting in your Self alone, you will, here and now, become blissful, peaceful and free from bondage.”
According to Ramana Maharshi,
”There is nothing so simple as being the Self. It requires no effort, no aid. One has to leave off wrong identity and be in one’s eternal, natural and inherent state.”(TALKS with Sri Ramana Maharshi, Talk No.101).
~ From Golden Guidelines to Who Am I? book by Swami Shantananda Puri
When the Buddha first turned the Wheel of Dharma, he taught the Four Noble Truths.
The First Noble Truth is that there is suffering, and it should be recognised.
The Second Noble Truth is that suffering has a cause, which therefore needs to be given up. That cause is the kleshas, the negative emotions or afflicting mental factors. Although there are many such obscured states of mind, the five principal obscurations are desire, aggression, ignorance, pride, and jealousy.
The Third Noble Truth is that there is a path that leads beings away from suffering; this path therefore needs to be followed.
The Fourth Noble Truth is that suffering can thus be brought to cessation.
Through the Four Noble Truths, the Buddha urged us to renounce worldly concerns and strive for liberation from samsara.
In our search for the means to be free from samsara, the first step is to listen to the teachings which explain the different methods of so doing. In addition to the precious knowledge that is thus acquired, simply hearing the sound of the Dharma being taught – even the sound of the conches and gongs that call the community to gather for teachings – has inconceivable blessings and benefits, the Buddha said, and can liberate beings from rebirth in the lower realms.
Through listening to the teachings, even those who lack the faculties to understand their meaning thoroughly will at least gain some notion of the Dharma’s qualities. Even a general idea of how to practice the Dharma is already precious.
The second step is to reflect on what you have heard and try to find the essential meaning in it. Examine your own mind to see whether it is really as the teachings describe or not, and whether you can keep it focused on an object of meditation.
Third, once you have a clear idea of the essential meaning of the Dharma, you must try to realize that meaning through your inner experience, and assimilate it into your being. This is called meditation.
As you progress through these three steps, spiritual qualities will naturally arise, and you will see the truth of the teachings. Those qualities will bloom spontaneously because the buddha nature within you is being revealed.
The buddha nature, or tathagatagarbha, is present in all beings, but is hidden by obscurations, in the same way that buried gold is hidden by the earth under which it lies.
As you listen to, reflect, and meditate on the Dharma, all the inherent qualities of your buddha nature will be actualized. When a field has been carefully prepared and planted with seeds, and all favorable conditions are present, such as temperature, moisture, and warmth, the seeds will germinate and grow into crops.
– Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
Q: I long for bhakti. I want more of this longing. Even realization does not matter for me. Let me be strong in my longing.
~ Ramana Maharshi:
If the longing is there, realization will be forced on you even if you do not want it. Long for it intensely so that the mind melts in devotion.After camphor burns away no residue is left. The mind is the camphor. When it has resolved itself into the Self without leaving even the slightest trace behind, it is realization of the Self.
– Sri Ramana Maharshi
Please listen to this; do not just listen to the mere words. As I talk, if you have observed your own minds, you will have come to that state of loneliness. It is with you now. This is not hypnosis because I suggest it; but actually if you have followed the workings of your own mind, you will have come to that state of loneliness; to be stripped of everything, every pretence, every pride, every virtue, every action. Can the mind live with that? Can the mind stay with it without any form of condemnation? Can it look at it without interfering – not as the observer looking at it? Is not then the mind itself that state? Do you follow?
– Jiddu Krishnamurti
The buddhas are aware of your faith and devotion, and know the very moment you take refuge. Do not think that the buddhas are far away in distant, absolute realms where your prayers and aspirations go unheard and unheeded. Buddhas are as ever present as the sky.
– Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, The Heart of Compassion
”In the state of no-mind, all boundaries dissolve. Suddenly, you are everywhere; suddenly, you are everyone. Suddenly, you are in the tree and in the stone and in the sky and in the friend and in the enemy—suddenly, you are simply everywhere. The whole of existence has become a mere mirror, and everywhere you find yourself reflected.
This state is the state of bliss. Nothing can disturb your peace anymore, because there is nothing except you. Nothing can destroy you now; there is nothing except you. There is no death anymore, because you continue to exist even in death itself. Nothing stands opposed to you any longer. You alone exist.
This is what Mahavira called kaivalya—perfect aloneness. Why aloneness? Because everything has been included, absorbed, and has become you.
This state can be expressed in two ways. One can say: “Only I exist. Aham Brahmasmi—I am God, the Divine, the Whole. Everything has entered into me; all rivers have flowed into my ocean. I alone exist. Nothing else exists.” This is how the Sufi mystics express it, and orthodox Muslims could never understand how the Sufis could say such things. A Sufi says: “There is no God. I alone exist.” Or: “God? That is me!”
This is a positive way of expressing that there is no longer any division.Buddha expresses it negatively. He says: “I am no more. Nothing exists.” Both speak the truth. If everything is contained within me, it no longer makes sense to call myself “I.” The ’I’ always stands in opposition to a ’you’; ’I’ exists only in relation to something other than itself. If there is no such separation, if there is only the One, if you are everything, then the “I” becomes meaningless.
Therefore, Buddha says: ”There is no self; nothing exists.”
Both are true.
~ Osho
(The Book of Secrets)
