no sin, no guilt, no retribution

"In the end you know

that there is no sin, no guilt, no retribution,

only life in its endless transformations.

With the dissolution of the personal 'I',

personal suffering disappears.

What remains is the great sadness of compassion,

the horror of the unnecessary pain."

~ Nisargadatta

I like the simile of the simple light bulb. Of course, keep in mind that a light bulb is not actually all that simple and it is the result of complex thought by many over considerable time. Being mindful of what it took in the development of humanity on this planet to have all of the materials for a light bulb available and then to have the understanding of how it could function in order to produce light, it is quite remarkable and wonderful.

The simile I use is to see the light bulb as an inanimate object that 'comes alive' when the electrical current flows through it. The older ones I grew up with are the incandescent bulbs that give off light because a fine wire filament creates resistance to the flow of electrical energy and thus heats up and glows brightly. Similarly, our body-mind-spirit complexes that are based in the physical body, experience Source energy flowing through them and thus they come alive and 'light up'. Seen in this context our lives actually consist of Source energy flowing through inert objects that create resistance to this flow and thus appear to 'come alive', to move, speak, think and, to some degree or the other, 'light up'.

We, as Source energy, are enthralled and fascinated by these 'objects' of our own creation that now appear to be 'alive', like children at Christmas playing with the remote control of a new battery-run dump-truck or locomotive. We actually lose track of the fact that we are actually the energy flow Itself, and not the object that is moved by It. We feel ourselves as the objects, the body-mind-spirit complexes. Wow, amazing! To feel ourselves as actually being the creations of our own 'hands'. Like the artist who, through magic, slips into the painting and lives in the paint-world portrayed on the canvas.

Now, back to the light bulb: at some point the fine wire filament has been heating up and glowing for many, many hours and it becomes brittle. One more burst of energy comes through and "ping"! it snaps, no longer able to sustain the flow of the current. We say then that "the person has died".  The current (Source energy) doesn't mind at all. As soon as the cosmic janitor comes and screws in another fresh, young light bulb, It begins to flow again and the bulb comes alive - the baby's heart beats and then it breathes, talks, thinks and loves.

Now we come to the most fascinating part: the Source energy carries in It all impressions of all "lives" lived by all forms that It has animated throughout all of "time". Each new form that takes on "life" has the capacity to consciously connect with any or all of these impressions. It is a vast data bank that every aspect of Source energy has access to. Which data I connect with depends on my individual propensities and depends on how far I have developed my ability to be sensitive enough to receive the subtle transmissions from the Great Server in the Sky. When this perspective dawns in a person, we say that person has transcended the personal 'I', and personal suffering disappears. It then becomes painfully clear that all suffering is due, simply, to a fatal error in perception of what is real, and what is just a form that is a vehicle for that which is real.

Now all of this is not a linear process and each of 'us' has a highly individual configuration of our body-mind-spirit complex, and that is to be taken literally: it is "complex"! Therefore, I, as one of the cosmic "workstations", will be supported in my functioning by some memories of another 'life', and may very well have the sense that I am connecting with "my past life". Indeed, I am, but the question remains, "who am I"? and thus, what is "mine"? Realizing that I am actually Source appearing in a multiplicity of forms, yes, indeed, all lives are "mine". Of significance is that I relate to the lessons such a memory can impart to me and live that lesson so that I may function more smoothly and thus experience more joy.

It is also my experience that the non-linearity of this process expresses itself as "me" being in a state of consciousness that has transcended the personal "I" to a high degree for quite a while, and then, moments later, I find myself again in a state of consciousness that is characterized by the sense of limitation and suffering as a personal "I". If I can follow the advice of the ancient wisdom texts and, as Matt Kahn says, "Whatever arises, love that", suffering dissipates and I once again find myself as Source consciousness experiencing life in its "endless transformations", and am able to gratefully join in the dance of Life. See you There!

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Austerity, Desire and Loving Yourself

A visitor asked Nisargadatta: "What is austerity?"

I found his answer so simple and enlightening that I am sharing it here.

Nisargadatta: "Once you have gone through an experience, not to go through it again is austerity. To eschew the unnecessary is austerity. Not to anticipate pleasure or pain is austerity. ... Desire by itself is not wrong. It is life itself, the urge to grow in knowledge and experience. It is the choices you make that are wrong.

To imagine that some little thing - food, sex, power, fame - will make you happy is to deceive yourself. Only something as vast and deep as your real self can make you truly and lastingly happy.
...
You are not in the body, the body is in you! The mind is in you. They happen to you. They are there because you find them interesting. Your very nature has the infinite capacity to enjoy. It is full of zest and affection. It sheds its radiance on all that comes within its focus of awareness and nothing is excluded. It does not know evil nor ugliness. It hopes, it trusts, it loves. 

You people do not know how much you miss by not knowing your own true self. You are neither the body nor the mind, neither the fuel not the fire. They appear and disappear according to their own laws.

That which you are, your true self, you love it, and whatever you do you do for your own happiness. 
To find it , to know it, to cherish it is your basic urge. Since time immemorial you loved yourself, but never wisely.

Use your body and mind wisely in the service of the Self, that is all. Be true to your own self, love your self absolutely. So not pretend you love others as yourself. Unless you have realized them as one with yourself, you cannot love them. Don't pretend to be what you are not, don't refuse to be what you are.
Your love of others is the result of self-knowledge, not its cause. Without self-realization no virtue is genuine.

When you know beyond all doubting that the same life flows through all that is and you are that life, you will love all naturally and spontaneously. When you realize the depth and fullness of your love of yourself, you know that every living being in the entire universe is included in your affection. But when you look at anything as separate from you, you cannot love it for you are afraid of it. Alienation causes fear and fear deepens alienation. It is a vicious circle. Only self-realization can break it. Go for it resolutely. 

(Nisargadatta, I Am That, p. 211 ff.)

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Duality Arises When Consciousness Arises

image: dreamstime

"Nisargadatta: 
Duality arises when consciousness arises. I am present and I know that I am present - that is duality. 
I am and I am not conscious of being present - that is unicity.
There is only one, but when this conscious presence is there, there is a sense of duality.

Questioner: Is the Realized person aware of everything?

N: Actually no one is realized, there is only pure knowledge. It is only for reasons of communication that we say a person is realized. The knowledge has realized that it is knowledge; that is all that has happened. I am not the body, I am not the words; when knowledge recognizes this it is called Self-Realization. 
...
Q: Why is it that India seems to be the cradle of this knowledge? No other country seems to have this knowledge?

N: That is not so. this manifestation is an expression of the Absolute and the manifestation takes different forms in various countries. Where it takes what kind of expression in immaterial; basically all is the manifestation of the Absolute. There is no cause and effect, no reason why one thing should be in one place and another something else in another. What is to be found out is what one is, by oneself."

(Nisargadatta, Prior to Consciousness p. 77)

My comment:
First off, Nisargadatta puts the term "duality" in the philosophical context: When there is consciousness at all, it  means that there is a subject and an object, there is a seer and the sense of something seen, a perceiver and the object of perception. So as soon as there is consciousness there are two, and no longer just one. 

He introduces the term "unicity" as the other state, when there is no duality and no consciousness. Generally the term used for that state when there is no duality is non-duality, and in Sanskrit "dvaita" which could be called "two-ness" and "advaita" with the prefix "a" which turns the term into its opposite - so we use the English term "non-duality".

From this languaging we come to the usual interpretation of these terms, which is that duality has to do with the opposites such as black-white, good-evil etc. and when you transcend duality you reconcile or transcend these dualities.

Here, however, we are lead by Nisargadatta to look at the basic state of our experience as being the state of consciousness and that is the state of two-ness or "duality".

Unicity is a state without consciousness: "I am and I am not conscious of being present - that is unicity." He points us to a state of "I Am" in which there is no consciousness of being present, no experience. This is called the "non-experiential state", or the "no-state state".

Why does he point us to this way of viewing things? Since I have been pondering his words now for some years, I have come to realize that this view is another way of expressing a vision I had some years ago: I "saw/felt" a huge river that had an infinite vastness to it. It was a river of energy and all the energy was flowing inexorably forwards into eternity. All of the energy was in complete sync and was absolutely homogeneous with itself and so it did not appear to itself. In this vast cosmic river (the river was the cosmos itself) there were some eddies, some whirlpools, some vortexes. They were clearly disturbances in the steady and harmonious flow of the whole. These whirlpools lit up, like something that caused friction to the flow of the whole and so they lit up, became hot. The whirlpools were the galaxies and what lit up were the stars and star systems and other celestial bodies. 

What was remarkable for me, the deepest impression of the vision experience was that the "dark" flow of the river was so tremendously more intense and strong and dense than the lit-up objects. Nisargadatta used the words: "Compared to this Reality, a diamond is like butter." 

Thus I get that he points us to a state that is prior to consciousness in order for us to loosen our psychological addiction to this world of consciously perceived objects, events and experiences. He tells us that he (and continually admonishes us that we are no different than he) IS without being conscious of being present. Nisargadatta wants to wean us away from our one-sided view that the experiential world of our five senses is all there is and thus encourage us to open up to another sense that is non-experiential.

Merry Christmas All!

Death?

This precious life (image source unknown)

The following lines are from Papaji. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._W._L._Poonja)

“The reason why everybody wants to avoid death is because Eternity is our real nature.

Death is not to be feared because it is an enjoyable and happy occasion and it only hurts one who has anger, greed, attraction, and aversion.

Death only comes to an active mind. Even the gods must face death.

All die but there is no grief because the Indweller lives.

Death is only the five elements returning to themselves.

The essence of wave, ocean, and raindrop is still water: nothing can be lost.

When a raindrop touches the ocean it becomes ocean.

So do not fear death for nothing can ever be lost and nothing can ever be gained.

Death only takes those who have become something, death only takes the body, the dress.

Death is a foolish notion.”

My comment:

The key to this view of things is the term Papaji uses here: “Indweller”. My first sense of what this word points to came to me when my first teacher, Sri Rajagopalan, introduced his yoga students into the Inner Silence during our meditations. My connection to this presence – and recognizing it as my actual nature and true identity – has grown and deepened over the years. Hand in hand with that I see that all physical forms truly are carriers for consciousness and that consciousness is universal and ever-present. When there is a vehicle to carry it consciousness attaches to that form for the duration of the form’s existence. It is much like a light bulb that lights up when electricity connects to it. Where does the electricity go when the bulb burns out? It is still there but now in-visible.

This passage by Nisargadatta points to another access point to become aware of the silent indweller:

 “The very base is that you don’t know you are (in deep sleep), and suddenly the feeling of “I Amness” appears. The moment it appears you see space, mental space; that subtle, sky-like space, stabilize yourself there. You are that. When you are able to stabilize in that state, you are space only. When this space-like identity “I Am” goes into oblivion, that is the eternal state, “nirguna”, no form, no beingness. …
Dealing with this aspect, I cannot talk much because there is no scope to put it into words.” (from Prior to Consciousness)

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nisargadatta_Maharaj)

Many sages speak of becoming aware in that state between deep sleep and waking, between being and non-being, or in the state that transcends (and includes) the three states of sleeping, dreaming and waking and call it the fourth state (turiya). It is so close to us, as it is our true nature, that we may need to be free of the louder movements of our mind’s thoughts, our body’s movements or our dreams and visions in order to pick up on its very subtle consistency – which is non-physical.

Something else that works for me is to disregard anything that might cause even the slightest turbulence or disturbance in my inner space, so that that space becomes clear like a crystal clear pool, and then I become aware of the water itself, even though it is in perfect non-moving stillness with itself. These lines from Papaji are currently my favorite for this practice:

“no-mind-limitless-happiness with Freedom in my mind not problems”

Wishing each of you limitless happiness today!

The Flow of Life's Energy

Some Qualities of the Investigation

• Do not ask superficial questions; apply yourself to fundamentals, to the very roots of your being.

• This machine is a self-generating machine; when you go into that the momentum helps clear all doubts in your mind. This is exclusively your knowledge which you will enjoy most, then all traces of the mind are completely uprooted.

• For you will obey and follow your own reality.

• In deep silence the self contemplates the body. It is like the white paper on which nothing is written yet.

• Be like the infant with nothing standing between the body and the self. The constant noise of psychic life is absent.

• Be a fully awakened witness of the field of consciousness. There should be no feeling or ideas to stand between you and the field.

• Realize that whatever you think yourself to be is just a stream of events, that while all happens, comes and goes, you alone are, the changeless among the changeful, the self-evident among the inferred.

• Instead of trying to be this or that, be like that infant, be happy to be.

• Just be conscious and happy. The pleasure to be is the simplest form of self-love, which later grows into love of the Self.

• Investigate yourself and love the investigation and you will not only solve your own problems but also the problems of humanity.

• As long as you allow yourself an abundance of moments of peace, you can safely practice the most honorable profession. These moments of inner quiet will burn out all obstacles without fail. Don’t doubt its efficacy. Try it.

• Virtues and powers are tokens for children to play with. They are useful in the world, but do not take you out of it. To go beyond, you need alert immobility, quiet attention.