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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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