Today's Words

The ego-mind is like a slug

The ego-mind is attached like a slug to some form or the other throughout the whole day and the night, except possibly in dreamless deep sleep. I am watching that slug with its slime that covers everything. The slime glistens and so it is beautiful in the sunlight, so thinks the mind.

Universal Being reigns supreme

All is indeed really just the Universal Being that is not attached to anything and is Immensity, Vastness and indescribably glorious Its Beauty. I am tuning in to that by letting the ego noise subside.

Nothing plus nothing equals nothing

Yes, all is sound vibration conjuring up the world. None is lasting, all is ephemeral. The bottom line is nothing. A good reason to not attach.

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Shift in Perception – A Real-Time Report

 

Awakening to Right Seeing

This is a report on a shift in perception that I am in the midst of. It is not a ten-word blip on the timeline in social media. If you are interested in the shift in perception that many are experiencing at present, then read on and take your time. This is not a ‘quick read’. Without patience and a relaxed state of mind while reading this you will only be frustrated, so no need to continue.

Personal Background

How do you wake up from the trance of separation, identification with the body and the resulting sense of individuation? In this article I report, as best I can, one awakening experience that occurred early Saturday morning, September 26th. Let me introduce this report with a few relevant comments regarding my spiritual path up to now, although I cannot say with certainty whether anything I have done prepared me for this awakening experience or not. Perhaps this radical shift in perspective would have happened anyway; maybe, maybe not. Forty-seven years ago I had my first glimpse of reality seen through the eyes of Consciousness free of the veil thanks to the ingestion of the chemical called LSD at the age of 18. I was suddenly “in another world” for several hours. As I began to investigate how that was possible and how it might be possible to be in that state continually without the aid of any chemical substance (which I knew must be possible), I realized several things. The short form of these realizations is that the state of “right seeing free of distortion” (which for me is the quintessence of the LSD experience) occurs when all causes for distortion subside. Knowing that, I have dedicated my exploration of consciousness since then to this task.

I was fortunate to meet my teacher Rajagopalan who introduced me to the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali and the view of reality as expressed by the modern Sage Ramana Maharshi. The study of these teachings helped me find my own path of clearing distortions and understanding how consciousness works. On this path I found several others who expounded the ‘perennial philosophy’ in their own ways. In recent years my favorites have been Lao Tzu, Nisargadatta, Krishnamurti, Thich Nhat Hanh, Shunryu Suzuki and Lin Ji, the Zen Master from the 9^th Century. Let me also mention the hermit poet-sage Han Shan as the one whose spirit continually supports me to simplify my life and my mind.

Shift in Perception

Early on the morning of Saturday, 9-26-2015, I awoke at around four am to answer the call of Nature. About halfway down the hall to the bathroom my perception suddenly shifted. Instead of feeling myself as an individual moving through a space with objects all around like the floor, the walls, and furniture, my perception flipped and suddenly I was the all-pervading Consciousness within which all forms take their existence. I was aware of the person Tomas moving inside of Consciousness as the Space, but I was looking from the vantage point of the Totality. The following words lit up in my mind: “It already knows what It is”. This signified to me that there was no need to incessantly flail about, wanting to ‘raise my frequency’ and to gain more insights and deeper understanding.

Shift to Big Mind as the Default

In the deep feeling tone that I had shifted to it was obvious that for Consciousness there was “nothing more to know or to make known”. Consciousness as the Totality is already complete. Words, of course, do not express the direct perception of this, but can only help create a sketch of the experience. I was grounded in this shifted perception for about nine hours on that day. Even now, writing this a day later, it feels like I am on a different foundation of perception, although the habitual sense of being ‘this body’ with its personality has resumed. Curiously, however, with an added quality somewhat like a parenthesis such that the perception of Beingness as my actual identity is still quite palpable and real, not just in the ‘background’ as previously was the case. The human personality and the greater Buddha Mind are more like equals, although the little mind now obviously does the bidding of the Big Mind.

It Already Knows What It Is

“It already knows what It is” means that It is complete in Itself and, mysteriously, always has been, even in the non-manifest state of the Absolute. It has nothing more to learn and there is no growth or evolution for Consciousness as It is immutable and unchanging. In this state, concepts about Consciousness in Its primordial state as the Absolute being ‘bored’ and therefore creating duality in order to experience and know Itself - seemed simply silly. My sense was rather that Consciousness was watching how everything in the world of name and form was ‘playing itself out’ according to Its nature. Consciousness doesn’t attempt to plan anything or manipulate the phenomenal world in any way, and thus I “got” that I should as well just “chill” and stop thrashing about.

The Nature of Consciousness

The nature of Consciousness is to be aware of all that is. Thus, as Consciousness takes in the ‘happenings’ in the phenomenal world, through the forms (mental, emotional, physical and spiritual) of this realm, greater awareness on the part of the forms results. As forms become more aware of their movement within the whole, greater alignment with the whole results. It is as if each wave on the ocean’s surface desires to move in unison with all other waves. No direction need be given and no effort is required to awaken the waves to their most suitable alignment. Those waves that are not able, for any reason, to align with the ocean’s pattern simply cease to exist. The ocean is unaffected.

 

Looking out of the Eye of Consciousness

Consciousness looks at manifest reality from the other side of individuation. Looking as individuals we are behind the veil from Consciousness. Free of the veil of ignorance (identification with form), Consciousness see all as Itself and sees that It is always going about Its business, which is to sort Itself out so as to come into alignment with all of Itself. This means, in regard to Consciousness that is caught up in manifest reality (limited consciousness), that there is a sort of impetus or intrinsic quality to continually become more and more aware of Itself. Voltage is sometimes described as “electric pressure” and my grade school teacher likened it to a garden hose with the faucet turned on. The ‘voltage’ of Consciousness is the impetus to be
aware.

Consciousness and the Earthworm

An image that I perceived while in this state was of an earthworm greedily burrowing through the soil taking in matter and emitting the enriched earth out the other side. Consciousness in myriad forms rapaciously consumes of Itself as manifest reality and these forms with limited consciousness emit various expressions spontaneously (thoughts, speech, behavior, actions etc.) in keeping with their state of awareness. This means that Consciousness does not know a priori the details of how It functions as limited consciousness in each individual case. It does, however, always knows full well what It is in the manifest reality, which is a field of consciousness individuated into myriad forms that are submerged under and pervaded by a veil of ignorance. It knows that this field of limited consciousness is eternally ‘doing its thing’ very dependably, guided by an infallible instinct to become more and more aware of itself and of the One as the ultimate true nature of All. Additionally It, as big Consciousness, ‘knows’ Itself as One without a second, the Absolute, the Unmanifest which is immutable and unchanging and unaffected by any of the ‘movements’ in manifest reality.

Peace and Clarity

This short sketch of the deep feeling tone that I perceived as me during this event may perhaps convey the essential quality for me, which is great Peace and Clarity that is like bedrock. It has nothing to do with concepts or the mind, and even to write concepts encounters a certain resistance. This peace and this clarity are so vast that a word seems puny. My hope is that some of this wide-openness, this unbounded freedom that says we should forget all concepts and it would be best if the mind would wither up and die, will be transmitted to the reader. Perhaps it is best just keep little mind in your pocket like a small calculator when you go to the store and you want to quickly calculate the amount of Euros in Dirham. You can take out your mind and use it when convenient. Otherwise just be with this grandness of things showing up and of feelings inside that want to be expressed and so you just follow the images, the inklings that arise and so some physical action happens like cooking, eating, washing your clothes, hugging a friend, watching a dog on the hillside – like that.

Self-Correction

Really what is happening is that Consciousness, with a large “C”, is just watching how everything moves and that is enough for awareness to grow. Self-correction happens then spontaneously. Well, what about all those people (forms) we see in this field of consciousness that seem to be stuck and are not “auto-correcting”, as you say? Maybe we will find some clue as to how this all fits together if we continue the narrative.

Watching manifest reality move, Consciousness sees how ignorance (caused by attachment to form) led to each form imagining itself separate from the Whole. Awareness begins to grow as individual forms begin to interact with their surrounding environment. Slowly the forms become aware of interaction with other forms and the illusion of being separate subjects interacting with objects around them sets in. The idea of a separate will takes hold and individual forms begin to develop the sense of being separate centers, each with their own respective and differing interests. Each form pursues its own interests that will secure its continued existence: survival, often at the cost of another, is the name of the game. In human individuals we call this the development of the ego, and Consciousness watches as the ego structure of limited consciousness grows far beyond the actual need to survive.

 

The Illusion of the Finite

Then limited consciousness in forms continues to increase its awareness of how manifest reality function. Each form, in its own way, learns how things work, how relationships work, how satisfaction and happiness, suffering and pain work. All the while, Consciousness free of the veil in Its original state, knows Itself even while watching limited consciousness that is caught up as the manifested, phenomenal reality. Beingness - as this dynamic manifest consciousness - is powered by a creative principle that is enthused by the experiment of conjuring up the illusion of the finite, duality, the veil and free will. This creative principle loves the feeling of being, the sense of physical existence.

The Thirst for Life

As my favorite sage, Ramana, says: “Thirst for life is inherent in the very nature of life..” Albert Camus says it differently but quite poignantly: “The flesh wants a tomorrow”. In this shift of perception to the perspective as Consciousness Itself - the substratum of all phenomena – watching all of manifestation unfold, this ‘thirst for life’ that is the motor for manifestation was very palpable, although Consciousness is not moved or affected by this thirst. The Sanskrit phrase “antar mukha dristi’ (the force of manifestation is retained in the Heart and does not spring forth as phenomena) characterizes the feeling. I once had a reality-dream of a man who was five hundred feet high, standing in the middle of space radiating great intensity, and this figure reminded me of depictions of Shiva, the Hindu god, in the middle of space with a huge erection of his lingam, but he just holds the creative energy, not moving to release it in any way, just being with the intensity of it.

False Identification

Life “is absolute existence – sat. Although indestructible by nature, by false identification with its destructible instrument, the body, consciousness imbibes a false apprehension of its destructibility. Because of that false identification it tries to perpetuate the body, and that results in a succession of births.” (Ramana) This describes what I call the dynamic of Consciousness ‘Velcro-ing” on to form, like the baby goose that takes the first form it sees when it opens its eyes to be its mother and follows it everywhere. Likewise, as soon as a form appeared in the field of perception of Consciousness, It identifies with the form and becomes conditioned by that identification. It is then no longer big Consciousness, but has become limited consciousness with a small “c”. Once Beingness identifies with form it is literally sucked in to the delusionary state of duality. Primordial Consciousness sees all the trials and tribulations that are incurred by Beingness (which is now limited consciousness) when enmeshed in the ignorance of identification with form but It watches from a platform that is apart from the happenings and yet very close.

Foam Castles

Looking at all of this from this platform of the Absolute, which is Consciousness before identification with form, It is in great Compassion with the realm of manifest reality and It is in Understanding of why and how all of this is playing out and sorting itself out. There is also a quality of Humor at the unexpected bursts of awareness growth that occur spontaneously and surprisingly. Humor also arises from the living realization that this spectacle is all really just an illusion, like so much foam thrown up by the waves on the beach creating great castles and landscapes and creature-like forms. One could say, it is all fake, or as Ramana calls it, “a spurious offshoot”. “The real Self is continuous and unaffected. The reincarnating ego belongs to the lower plane, namely, thought. It is transcended by Self-realization. Reincarnations are due to a spurious offshoot.”

The Seeing Eye of Infinity

Through the Eye of Consciousness, when it is free of the veil, our life looks something like this:

“Oh my God! How ludicrous! These forms acting with limited consciousness are actually eating each other! What an abomination! The chickens they breed are reduced to a walking bone frame that carries flesh on it. No more running around on the hillside fields catching insects and eating seeds. They are in cramped pens scratching in their own feces!”

“How wonderful! The human flesh eaters are beginning to feel the same disgust and are beginning to partake less and less in the flesh of other living beings. They are still consuming other material forms, which in their limited consciousness state they feel they require for survival, for sustenance. However, they are starting to relish plant nutrition. They are beginning to recognize that they are first and foremost energy beings immersed in a sea of energy and that there are various ways in which they open to and take in the vital energy into their forms.”

“How absurd! Each one of the forms in the human realm feels they are separate from their environment and each other. The one Being that I Am is right in front of their eyes, but they can’t see It. How mysterious! Their sense of consciousness as “I” seems to attach on to one single form (the human body) and from then on deeply believes that it IS that human body and that they are limited in their abilities to the potential as a biological organism.”

“How delightful! More and more humans are becoming consciously aware of being completely interconnected to all other forms and to the totality of their physical and even spiritual environment! They are letting go of their fear as egos and are starting to feel the embrace of the Benevolence and Security of all Life!”

“How terrible! Some sectors of human consciousness are addicted to the frequency of power over others. This addiction leads them to cause great pain and suffering to extensions of themselves that they perceive as being ‘others’, separate from themselves. They are abusing each other in unimaginable ways, torturing, raping, maiming, enslaving, humiliating and destroying each other’s human forms. And all for no reason as it will all come back to them and make all of their “gains” nothing, whether they believe it or not.”

“How empowering! Increasing numbers of them are understanding that whatever they do to “others”, they are actually and literally doing to themselves! Halleluiah! They are beginning to wake up from the state of limited consciousness!"

 

Watching the Shadows on the Wall of the Cave

Such is the viewpoint of unconditional Consciousness. It doesn’t engage and take part in the interactions of the forms with one another. It knows Itself, and knows that only Its Reality is really real and all else is so much play of shadows on the cave wall. In this Knowing is the certainty that “all is sorting itself out” and is in the inexorable process of returning from the delusionary state to full Consciousness. It views this all much like one watching a sick person in high fever wildly gesticulating and arguing with imaginary persons in the state of acute hallucination. It cools the person’s brow and speaks soothing words and administers the medicine that can break the fever and then just watches, and waits… for the fever to break. The medicine that Consciousness administers to the confused and suffering creatures is Silence, and this medicine permeates magically into all phenomena and calms them. As they release their agitation and their excitement, their mind’s focus returns. They no longer see in a confused way, mistaking the limited physical form with their true Identity.

 

Direct Perception from Within

That is why it is said that each one must find their Truth in themselves. When in the confused state of consciousness, any information from an outside source will only increase the dissonance in one’s own vibrational field and impair the waves of information from settling to the point where all mind-vibrations finally subside. The still-point is there when one simply refrains from creating more mind-vibrations. Then the mind-stuff becomes still by itself, just as the glass of water when it is no longer brought into oscillation by the movement of the hand that is holding it. We are the hand that is holding the glass of water of our mind. The medicine from Consciousness is the very subtle, very fine voice telling us to finally just “Stop”. Then clear light is our reality and all is seen in direct perception from within. There is no need to sift through all of the theories and ‘information”. Discernment then happens spontaneously from that place of right seeing. In this steady and effortless state of discernment Truth is seen as true, false is seen as false, and the Truth in the false is seen. One then moves through life with a steady gait, unburdened by the surrounding confusion and buoyed up by the omnipresent Consciousness.

 

Living Passionately

Does this change my life? Actually, it doesn’t, not at all. Tomas keeps doing all he ever did, but now there is a level of silent participation by the Buddha Mind that Tomas wasn’t aware of previously. This silent participation has the effect of calming needless thought activity and this leaves Tomas free to do whatever he does with more presence and less interference by extraneous small-mind thoughts. The Zen people in Japan have a term called “ichigyo-zammai” and it translates as “one-practice samadhi”. It means that one’s whole mind and body are fully engaged in every action that one does. This leads to one being aware of Big Mind while engaged fully and passionately in all that one is called to do in the phenomenal world. It is not something that is “practiced” and learned like a skill. It is more that one spontaneously becomes drawn in to living in this way because awareness has grown. How did it grow? I don’t know for sure, but my guess is: that is just what It does.

Ecstasy, Happiness and Realization - Ramana

Q: So one should not try to perpetuate blissful or ecstatic states?

Ramana: The final obstacle in meditation is ecstasy; you feel great bliss and happiness and want to stay in that ecstasy. Do not yield to it but pass on to the next stage which is great calm. The calm is higher than ecstasy and it merges into samadhi. Successful samadhi causes a waking sleep state to supervene. In that state you know that you are always consciousness, for consciousness is your nature. Actually, one is always in samadhi but one does not know it. To know it all one has to do is to remove the obstacles.

Q: Through poetry, music, japa, [chanting holy names], bhajans [devotional songs], the sight of beautiful landscapes, reading the lines of spiritual verses, etc., one experiences sometimes a true sense of the all- pervading unity. Is that feeling of deep blissful quiet in which the personal self has no place the same as the entering into the Heart of which Bhagavan speaks? Will undertaking these activities lead to a deeper samadhi and so ultimately to a full vision of the real?

A: There is happiness when agreeable things are presented to the mind. It is the happiness inherent in the Self, and there is no other happiness. And it is not alien and afar. You are diving into the Self on those occasions which you consider pleasurable and that diving results in self-existent bliss. But the association of ideas is responsible for foisting that bliss on other things or occurrences while, in fact, that bliss is within you. On these occasions you are plunging into the Self, though unconsciously. If you do so consciously, with the conviction that comes of the experience that you are identical with the happiness which is truly the Self, the one reality, you call it realization. I want you to dive consciously into the Self, that is the Heart.

Q: I have been making sadhana [spiritual practice] for nearly twenty years and I can see no progress. What should I do? From about five o’clock every morning I concentrate on the thought that the Self alone is real and all else unreal. Although I have been doing this for about twenty years I cannot concentrate for more than two or three minutes without my thoughts wandering.

A: There is no other way to succeed than to draw the mind back every time it turns outwards and fix it in the Self. There is no need for meditation or mantra or japa or anything of the sort, because these are our real nature. All that is needed is to give up thinking of objects other than the Self. Meditation is not so much thinking of the Self as giving up thinking of the not-Self. When you give up thinking of outward objects and prevent your mind from going outwards by turning it inwards and fixing it in the Self, the Self alone remains.

David Godman, “Be As You Are, The Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi”, p. 167-8

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our new gospel

Tiana's wisdom!

3 minutes to uplift your Heart!

link to video
 

This video was posted on Cherish Sherry's Facebook page an September 21, 2015 and I am so happy to see that (at the time of this writing) it had 11,421,892 Views, 2,560 people liked this and 537 made wonderful comments!

Here is the story in her Mom's words:

Cherish Sherry

Must watch!! After came back from badminton I Open the garage door try to drive my car in and heard Tiana voice yelling "stopped mama"!! my shoe rack fallen down in the garage all over 50 pairs of shoes and the rack are on the ground. I get out of the car walk into the garage And Alfred came out yelling to me that my shoes rack was suck!! Complaining I bought a cheap shoes racks good for nothing!on and on..And I told him to just move get out of the way if he doesn't want to help then go away!as I get upset so didn't make it sound nice and friendly. But it's not a fight.Tiana offered to help me put up shoes on the rack That I rebuilt after all it done I am going to move the car in but Alfred offered help to tight up some lopes to help stabilized while he do that......I think she saw her dad helping me and then start talking..Tiana said in front of both of us,Why you guys don't try to be nice to each other... Like a friends helping each other don't get mad and be happy!! Lots moreI was stunned by it! She is teaching me!!
Woke me up!!!
And then we sit down only me and Tiana
And this is part of it as didn't think she could think like that!! She brought me tear and feel guilty
Amazing little girl Her name is TIANA!!"

the mind-pearl

Han Shan, The Hermit of Cold Mountain

The deeper the better is the cave!
No body walks on this narrow wave.
White clouds rest on the highest hill,
Green cliff hides the monkeys who trill,
No relative other than these,
I do like live here at my will!
Let my face and seasons change,
My mind-pearl is always so still!
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If you turn in your mind,
Buddha is at home!
I could not change my rule,
I'm not straw mat to roll,
Wander in the forest,
Sit on the stone I cull!
If you do want a good place to live on,
The ice mountain is ideal one, I have found.
Breezes murmur gently between calm pine trees.
It's elating to hear and one is free,
Under these trees there is a grey haired man,
Reading his Sutra as much as he can,
For ten years he did not return,
He forgot the roads by which he came!
I stay in such obedience!
No body is my audience!
Sitting among the brilliant clouds,
I am always in silence!

Source
My Comment:
"My mind-pearl is always so still" is one verse of a poem that the hermit-sage of Cold Mountain, Han Shan, wrote on a cliff wall hundreds of years ago (during the Tang dynasty, possibly around the year 900). This message is today more relevant than ever as we are being bombarded by myriad stimuli to our mind-body-spirit complex. Only if each of us finds a way to again and again clear our "plate", so to speak, are we able to take in that which is essential, free of adulteration by past residue. For me it has long been clear that it is essential to continue focusing on knowing and realizing my true primordial nature, the Self. Should this endeavor be yours as well, may Han Shan's words inspire you!

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live as beauty - Ramana

Questions put to Ramana Maharshi:

Question: What is reality?
Ramana's Answer: The radiance of consciousness-bliss, in the form of one awareness shining equally within and without, is the supreme and blissful primal reality. Its form is silence and it is declared by jnanis (Self-realized ones) to be the final and unobstructable state of true knowledge [jnana].

Q: What is this awareness and how can one obtain and cultivate it?
A: You are awareness. Awareness is another name for you.
Since you are awareness there is no need to attain or cultivate it. All that you have to do is to give up being aware of other things, that is, of the not-Self. If one gives up being aware of them then pure awareness alone remains, and that is the Self.

Q: If the Self is itself aware, why am I not aware of it even now?
A: There is no duality. Your present knowledge is due to the ego and is only relative. Relative knowledge requires a subject and an object, whereas the awareness of the Self is absolute and requires no object.

Remembrance also is similarly relative, requiring an object to be remembered and a subject to remember. When there is no duality, who is to remember whom? The Self is ever-present. Each one wants to know the Self. What kind of help does one require to know oneself? People want to see the Self as something new. But it is eternal and remains the same all along. They desire to see it as a blazing light etc. How can it be so? It is not light, not darkness. It is only as it is. It cannot be defined. The best definition is ‘I am that I am’. The srutis [scriptures] speak of the Self as being the size of one’s thumb, the tip of the hair, an electric spark, vast, subtler than the subtlest, etc. They have no foundation in fact. It is only being, but different from the real and the unreal; it is knowledge, but different from knowledge and ignorance. How can it be defined at all? It is simply being.

Q: When a man realises the Self, what will he see?
A: There is no seeing. Seeing is only being. The state of Self-realisation, as we call it, is not attaining something new or reaching some goal which is far away, but simply being that which you always are and which you always have been. All that is needed is that you give up your realisation of the not-true as true. All of us are regarding as real that which is not real. We have only to give up this practice on our part. Then we shall realise the Self as the Self; in other words, ‘Be the Self. At one stage you will laugh at yourself for trying to discover the Self which is so self-evident. So, what can we say to this question?

That stage transcends the seer and the seen. There is no seer there to see anything. The seer who is seeing all this now ceases to exist and the Self alone remains

Q: How to know this by direct experience?
A: If we talk of knowing the Self, there must be two selves, one a knowing self, another the self which is known, and the process of knowing. The state we call realisation is simply being oneself, not knowing anything or becoming anything. If one has realised, one is that which alone is and which alone has always been. One cannot describe that state. One can only be that. Of course, we loosely talk of Self-realisation, for want of a better term. How to ‘realise’ or make real that which alone is real?

Q: You sometimes say the Self is silence. Why is this?
A: For those who live in Self as the beauty devoid of thought, there is nothing which should be thought of. That which should be adhered to is only the experience of silence, because in that supreme state nothing exists to be attained other than oneself.

source: Excerpts from David Godman's book "Be As You Are - The Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi"
My comments:
Of the many statements in this excerpt from David Godman's book "Be As You Are - The Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi" that struck a chord in me, this one stands out and has become a sort of mantra since about a week ago:
"For those who live in Self as the beauty devoid of thought, there is nothing which should be thought of."
The wording "live in Self as the beauty devoid of thought" is so evocative of an entirely new way of perceiving and living. First, the words "live in Self" bring to my awareness the sense of being embedded in this all-encompassing Benevolence that I have been aware of in the background almost continually for the last two decades or more. Now, this awareness shifts more viscerally into the forefront of my daily experience. Secondly, the words "live... as the beauty" was an eye-opener for me. It catalyzed the realization that, when in the Self and devoid of thought, one lives as beauty itself. This is different than living a beautiful life or being a beautiful person, etc. The space of one's existence, when cleared of the conditioned mind-flow that produces so much conflict, becomes beauty itself. The world around becomes limpid.

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sublimate the mind in the Self - Ramana

"Sublimate the mind in the Self"

Ramana Maharshi

What does this mean? It means the mind is the great impostor. A whole world, nee, a whole cosmos is conjured up and we are made to believe it is really happening, but in Reality nothing is happening. Very hard to believe that everything we see, touch, taste, smell and think is all just the mysterious effect of sound vibration taking on certain patterns and then these patterns (forms) looking at themselves and interacting with each other as though they were more than patterns of sound vibration. Is it possible to get to the root of this "manifestation"?

The statement above by Ramana means that it is the Self alone that exists outside of space and time and all dimensions. We perceive the immensity of all of manifested creation and our mind is overwhelmed. We cannot take in Eternity and Infinity, although we have these two nice and neat words to give us the feeling that we have 'grasped' their significance. How can we get to the root of all of this? Is there a root at all?

Anyone who has suddenly found themselves in the Stillpoint, the Silence, the Emptiness, will agree with me that there IS a source-point or source-place that is not of time and space. Ramana calls this 'something' that one experiences at that place "the Self". How can we find the Self? Stop. Stop all searching using the mind and the organs of perception. They are all part of the magic. You can enjoy them and shudder at their ferocity, but don't subscribe to them.

Realize you identity with the Absolute Reality. Turn inward to the One Reality. The sense of "I" stems from the One Reality, which is before the duality of subject and object and the trinity of seer, sight and seen. You cannot "find" the Self, because It is actually the only Reality that really IS, all else is superimposed in the Self.

To sublimate the mind in the Self, create the imagination and feel like you and your mind are a piece of spongecake. Feel like all of Life that surrounds you is very light, but pleasantly sweetened liquid with the slight taste of caramel and you are being submerged into this bath of sweetness. Allow yourself, as the spongecake, to sink into the sweetness and become the sweetness.

Don't give credence to anything that seems to be 'happening' in your field of awareness. Hold fast to the conviction, as strange as it sounds, that only the One is Real, and that It is infinite benevolence, compassion, joy and love.

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encouragement

Mesaverde Cliff Palace Anasazi Ancient Ones

musings on the ancient ones

a sun cycle we call a year,

this planet has been alive for many millions

of years of beings alive and sentient

living together – finally – peacefully

used their sentience to explore what we can create together

in love and abundance enjoying being together.

where are they now? no one knows for sure, the ancients

left some of their buildings we find so we know

of them they lived long ago millions of years.

must have gained the wisdom black diamond of silence

to have lived millions of years peacefully enjoying eternity.

what about us? we can too sure we can once we humble ourselves

to know we are part of this too same as them why not?

only still toddlers in our spirit crawling along our head too heavy to lift

so we can see a bit further see those who came before and

are still here only not so low

let's raise our eyes our heads up to the heavens

the stars the sky so blue.

deep blue and full of mystery our friend our mother and father.

the mystery so warm and dark our womb so lose your fear

raise your head your eyes your spirit it’s all just here for you

as you - not against you don’t believe - it help the others to

understand and stand now up on our feet looking straight

ahead with our head up high.

come on, you can do it too,

sure you can.

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the reason why

The Donkey's Mournful Call to Prayer

Careful, careful, each step you take,

walking down the mountain

with honey-cakes in your pack.

On your way to market

selling on the corner,

where all the taxis pass.

Never look beyond your nose,

keep to what you’re doing.

Any swish away from there

will land you in the gutter.

Is there sunshine on your face?

Or clouds and white birds flying?

Can you hear the donkey yodel

his mournful call to prayer?

Never mind, be at your work,

just sit and smile and sell.

Destiny will open up

the vistas of eternity,

but only if you keep your eyes

fixed upon the riddle,

flipping hotcakes for the world

with all your care and skill.

Who can tell what skills you have

until you start to use them?

Then they taste your honey-cakes

and know it's for a reason.

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I cannot express what I feel

born out of nothing

The roaring silence of the diamond. What do I want here on this planet as I see every view that anyone holds as true and valid. There is only emptiness as all views are conjured up by the beholder’s repertoire of images. Combinations of what each one projects as per their personal distortions. We all are fragments of perception, each from a unique standpoint. As such we do see what our individual perceptions mosaic together. It’s a living kaleidoscope and we want to give what appears in a given moment a meaning. It is as if you took thousands of frames of a film and then took one single frame and said “this is the movie”.
 

It means just what it is as the Moroccan coffee in the short glass sweet, bitter and strong. As the gaunt mother in her purple jelleba daughter on her hand, it’s the first day of the new school year, and the daughter kisses her mother’s hand. The mother approaches the table next to mine on the sidewalk and asks for the water glass for her daughter, just out of school across the street and she drinks greedily, then smiles and exclaims “Hamdullah” – thanks be to God!

I am finished dunking my spiral pudding pastry into my coffee as I am used to from Italy with their brioches. Now the sheer mountain cliff that defines the ‘Blue City’ captures my view – such a contrast to the bustle of this market street and the mountain immovable rock. Bright sunshine of autumn on the white wall with the blue trim across from the café and the deep blue sky in the space above between the roofs – yes, this planet is beautiful in so many ways and also everyone caught in the irksome mesh of their minds and thoughts.

To put my attention on which thoughts are “true” and which are “not” already means I’m caught in the mesh and as dead. To even enter in to the movement of discriminating between “this” and “that” pulls me into the abyss of identification with some aspect of manifestation. How to remain in the ‘Pure Land’? The only aliveness is free from the “knowledge” of feeling myself as one of the many objects within this manifest field that sees him/herself as a subject.

This duality of imaginary forms (that are empty of substance) deluded into believing our existence as subjects and individuals is strange and amazing. How could any fragment of consciousness engaged in this magical creation fail to appreciate how wonderful this manifest consciousness world is? Unbelievable even to entertain the notion that this is really ‘just’ a mysterious projection of electrical charges upon a screen that allows living images with names and forms to become manifest, i.e. visible and experienceable.

Therefore all that can be perceived, conceived of, imagined, thought of, or felt in any way is true: it is a true projection. Is there anything of more substance, more reality than these physical, mental, emotional, spiritual and multi-dimensional holographic projections?
Yes, and we call it “the roaring silence of the diamond of wisdom” for short. It is the awe-inspiring Absolute, which is what infuses all aliveness with Aliveness, all consciousness with Consciousness and all awareness with Awareness.

Anything that catches your fancy and seduces you to partake and consume of ‘yourself’ as part of this totality of manifest consciousness is the Absolute. It is that without form, and so we call it ‘empty’ and so any form can take on Its taste, Its perfume, Its enticing and seductive shape and texture, Its touch, Its whisper and Its siren song so sweet.
And yet the moment you lose sight of It and fall into the trance of the holographic self-hypnosis, you are lost. This being lost is so sweet, like the oblivion in your lover’s arms just after the act. And a moment (or an eon) later the craving for >>more<< returns to obsess you – you “love to be”.

Where is the freedom? The ultimate release from this bondage to form? Is it as the eternal Subject that sees Itself as all manifestation and is still free of its tethers, such as the Big-Mind state of Zen? Does that state exist for more than a split millisecond at a time? Or is it the acquiescence to this eternity of living in form, just allowing oneself to continue swimming in the River of Suchness that does not differentiate between Itself and others?

I open my eyes and am astonished and surprised at all the strange and wonderful sights that my Eye beholds. I care for all manifestation, all of this World because I know that it is conceived and born out of nothing – the “child of a barren woman” as it has been called. I am Life and I serve life. I am Time and I will always bring forth time. This Eternity is the roaring silence of the diamond. I cannot express what it is I am feeling.

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Charon

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the roaring silence of the diamond

a short excerpt from Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac

While waiting for his next freight train (the "Midnight Ghost") to jump for the ride up to L.A. Ray Smith heads out from the railroad yard in El Paso, Texas, out into the desert:

There just isn't any kind of night's sleep in the world that can compare with the night's sleep you get in the desert winter night, providing you're good and warm in a duck-down bag. The silence is so intense that you can hear your own blood roar in your ears but louder than that by far is the mysterious roar which I always identify with the roaring of the diamond of wisdom, the mysterious roar of silence itself, which is a great Shhhh reminding you of something you've seemed to have forgotten in the stress of your days since birth. I wished I could explain it to those I loved, to my mother, to Japhy, but there just weren't any words to describe the nothingness and purity of it. "Is there a certain and definite teaching to be given to all living creatures?" was the question probably asked to beetle-browed snowy Dipankara, and his answer was the roaring silence of the diamond.

source: Jack Kerouac,  Dharma Bums, p. 157 

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Discussion vs Argument by Justin Deschamps

This is an excerpt from a recent post on the blog Stillness In The Storm by Justin Deschamps. It is taken from the longer article with this title:

Episode 5 of Cosmic Disclosure Now Free to View, Four Interviews Scheduled for September, Discussion vs Argument | Corey GoodETxSG [link]

My Comment: I find Justin's comments here on how to hold a lucid discussion very useful for those of us engaged in discussions at various levels. To avoid a discussion turning into an argument and a shouting match requires emotional non-reactivity and an understanding of the rules for a fair exchange of views, which is what we wish for in any discussion for it to be productive for all involved. Please enjoy Justin's comments.

Justin Deschamps:
 

"The goal of any discussion about ideas, beliefs or points of view is ideally done by sharing information completely, as it relates to a central point. This is not to force another to accept our beliefs, in fact a good discussion should challenge our accepted truths, expanding them with insights and enriching our point of view in the process. 
"When a conversation devolves into an argument, it is usually because the beliefs we need for emotional support are being challenged. This is when discussion turns to argument; what is now known as trolling. And this happens for a very good reason, because we derive our emotional support from our knowledge base: what we accept as truth, known as beliefs. Recognizing this psychology can help us realize the wisdom of not taking anything personally. People defend their beliefs because of their personal needs, not because they want to offend you - in most cases. And even if they do want to cause offense, we can recognize that as a defensive stance on their part, without creating the emotional charge of being offended for ourselves. 
"I am hardly a perfect example of objective discussion and diplomacy, but ideally when someone is diverging away from the central point, I try to address their emotional charge using compassion and understanding. Rejecting someone's point of view usually creates further argument, as they try and justify their position. By accepting their position as is, and then building from there using compassionate questioning, we can attempt to create a emotionally easy space for vulnerability. This acknowledges the fact that the central point is no longer being addressed and attempts to address the emotional needs of others. 
"If as individuals, we can learn to recognize when discussion goes off course, then it will help us avoid being dragged into an emotionally charged situation, while at the same time avoiding further conflict using reactionary comments on our part. 
"We get all sorts of incendiary comments on the blog and social media. Here is a good example from a Facebook share of the Summary of Cosmic Disclosure Episode 10:

'You know, I can't watch these guys cause their so interested in making money.'

"Is this person speaking to a central point that was covered in the article? No. They have diverted off course, but in doing so made plain where they are in their discernment. They have a bias towards money, which clouds their rational processes when considering the data presented. In this case responding with consternation and indignation will only create additional emotional haziness that makes honest discussion all the more difficult. 
"I responded with the following:

'What makes you think making money some how disproves the data offered? Granted there are lots of examples of people receiving money who are dishonest, but I am not sure that is what is happening here. I'd love to know how you came to this decision.'

"I attempted to un-confrontationally address the irrationality of their position, while at the same time accepting their point of view with compassion. This can work even with those who are actively using harsh language to stir conflict. When we remain objective and speak to the points of issue, avoiding the temptation to fall off the tip of the pyramid, it deflates the energy of the argument in most cases. Additionally other people watching from the sidelines can observe a more grounded approach. 
"In law this is called conditional acceptance, where one party's perspective is acknowledged by the other party, while at the same time citing inconsistencies in an inquisitive way. Free will beings have different points of view as an inherent property of existence, therefore accepting their current position will help create a space for vulnerability while focusing on the critical points of discussion. 
"There have been several times we used compassionate techniques to quell an argument, and in doing so, realized that we had much more in common then we initially thought. In some cases we ended up making new friends and allies simply by working through the initial battlements of a conversation. 
"Again I am not trying to hold myself up as a guru of diplomacy, but I will say that almost all of us are quick to react defensively, and if we can stay grounded and calm, it will help unify the horribly divided truther community."