Generosity

"You are the sky. Everything else, it's just the weather."

~ Pema Chodron

------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------

"You can measure the depth of a person's awakening by how they serve others"

~ Kobo Daishi (774-835 CE)

------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------

The end and the sum total of all mysticism, philosophy, and meditation, of everything one learns and develops, is to be a better servant to humanity. Everything from the beginning to the end in the spiritual path is a training to be able to serve mankind better, and if one does not do it with that intention, one will find in the end that one has accomplished nothing.

~ Hazrat Inayat Khan

------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------

"Compassionate action starts with seeing yourself when you start to make yourself right and when you start to make yourself wrong. At that point you could just contemplate the fact that there is a larger alternative to
either of those, a more tender, shaky kind of place where you could live."

~ Pema Chodron

------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------

Gratitude, the simple and profound feeling of being thankful, is the foundation of all generosity. I am generous when I believe that right now, right here, in this form and this place, I am myself being given what I
need. Generosity requires that we relinquish something, and this is impossible if we are not glad for what we have. Otherwise the giving hand closes into a fist and won't let go.

~ Sallie Jiko Tisdale, "As If There is Nothing to Lose"

------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------

When you are practicing generosity, you should feel a little pinch when you give something away. That pinch is your stinginess protesting. If you give away your old, worn-out coat that you wouldn't be caught dead wearing, that is not generosity. There is no pinch. You are doing nothing to overcome your stinginess; you're just cleaning out your closet and calling it something else. Giving away your coat might keep someone warm, but it does not address the problem we face as spiritual practitioners: to free ourselves from self-cherishing and self-grasping.

~ Gelek Rinpoche

------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------

"Generosity is revolutionary, counter-instinctual . Our survival instinct is to care only for ourselves and our loved ones. But we can transform our relationship to that survival instinct by constantly asking ourselves, "How can I use my life's energy to benefit all living beings?"

~ Noah Levine

------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------

"Wherever you are is the entry point"

~ Kabir

The Simplicity of What IS - Joan Tollifson

Liberation is not about having the answers or having an experience. It has nothing to do with belief, but is rather the absence (or transparency, or seeing through) of belief. Waking up does not happen in the past or the future, only Now. Liberation or enlightenment is not something you find or acquire like a new car. It is not some dazzling or exotic experience like being permanently high on ecstasy or LSD. Liberation is seeing through the ubiquitous fabrications and mirages of conceptual thought, including the whole idea of liberation and the one who supposedly needs to be liberated.

Ultimate Reality is hidden right in front of our eyes in plain view. It is showing up as breakfast dishes, laundry, sunlight on leaves, the barking of a dog, sound of traffic or rain, the humming of the computer, the taste of tea, the shapes of these words, and the awareness being and beholding it all. And only when we describe all of this in words does it seem as if "awareness" is one thing and "the taste of tea" is something else. The non-conceptual actuality of this breathing-hearing-seeing-being is undivided, without center or periphery. No inside, no outside. No subject, no object. Simply this, just as it is.

And then perhaps a thought: "There must be more to life than this," or "What is the meaning of it all?" or "What about final enlightenment?" or "Isn't this all just the phenomenal manifestation, and isn't that an illusion?" Thought creates imaginary problems and tries to solve them. The complex human brain has an astonishing ability to conceptualize, imagine, remember, project, and think about things that have no actual reality. Yet even these thoughts are nothing but a momentary dream-like shape or expression of the One, undivided, boundless Whole.

Thought labels, categorizes, evaluates, and reifies the ever-changing perceptions that appear. Conceptual thought creates the hypnotic, mirage-like illusion of solid, persisting, independent things (including "me" and "you") -- the illusion of duality and separation. Thought imagines "me" as a separate character on a journey through time. It conjures up goals and stories of success and failure. It even creates the image of "me" as a serious spiritual person dedicated to getting rid of the "me." But without thinking, where is the "me"? What am I, really?

***

Is it possible that the peace and well-being we seek (that longing at the root of all our more superficial desires), cannot be found or satisfied by answers or attainments or experiences of any kind? Is it possible that the very search for it "out there" is precisely what prevents us from noticing that what we are seeking is the very essence of Here and Now?

And what is that?

It is nothing you can take hold of conceptually, and it's not any particular experience (as opposed to any other experience). It is the beingness, the groundlessness, the IS-ness of this moment -- this that is undeniably present beyond all doubt, requiring no proof or belief, impossible to deny -- before and after and even during all the grasping and searching and experience-seeking. The words (beingness, groundlessness, IS-ness) are only pointers. What they point to is nothing you can get hold of as an object. In fact, there really are no solid objects because everything is thorough-going flux. This no-thing-ness (or emptiness) is all there really is.

And this no-thing-ness is vibrantly alive, aware, conscious, awake, present. The grasping, searching and thinking may seem to destroy the wholeness of being or the spaciousness of presence-awareness, but can anything really destroy awareness, or the present moment, or beingness? Doesn't everything appear Here and Now, in awareness? And doesn't everything appear altogether at once as one diverse but seamless whole?

(Click here to read more)

The Wisdom of Nisargadatta Maharaj

"Either you remain forever hungry and thirsty, longing, searching, grabbing, holding, ever losing and sorrowing, or go out wholeheartedly in search of the state of timeless perfection to which nothing can be added, from which nothing - taken away.

... In it all desires and fears are absent, not because they were given up, but because they have lost their meaning."

------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- -

"Immobility and silence are not inactive. The flower fills the space with perfume, the candle -- with light. They do nothing yet they change everything by their mere presence."

------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- -

"Once the illusion that the body-mind as oneself is abandoned, death loses its terror, it becomes a part of living ... All happiness comes from awareness. The more we are conscious, the deeper the joy. Acceptance of pain, non-resistance, courage and endurance - these open deep and perennial sources of real happiness, true bliss."

"Forget the known, but remember that you are the knower. Don't be all the time immersed in your experiences. Remember that you are beyond the experiencer, ever unborn and deathless. In remembering it, the quality of pure knowledge will emerge, the light of unconditional awareness."

"But why worry so much about causation? What do causes matter, when things themselves are transient? Let come what comes and let go what goes - why catch hold of things and inquire about their causes?"

"If you could only keep quiet, clear of memories and expectations, you would be able to discern the beautiful pattern of events. It is your restlessness that causes chaos."

"Discard every self-seeking motive as soon as it is seen and you need not search for truth; truth will find you."

------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- -

"Spiritual maturity is being ready to let go everything. Giving up is a first step, but real giving-up is the insight that there's nothing to be given up, since nothing is your property."

"Having realized that I am one with, and yet beyond the world, I became free from all desire and fear. I did not reason out that I should be free, I found myself free, unexpectedly, without the least effort."

"Meet your own self. Be with your own self, listen to it, obey it, cherish it, keep it in mind ceaselessly. You need no other guide. As long as your urge for truth affects your daily life, all is well with you. Live your life without hurting anybody. Harmlessness is a most powerful form of Yoga and it will take you speedily to your goal. This is what I call nisarga yoga, the Natural yoga. It is the art of living in peace and harmony, in friendliness and love. The fruit of it is happiness, uncaused and endless."

"You must find your own way. Unless you find it yourself, it will not be your own way and will take you nowhere. Earnestly live your truth as you have found it, act on the little you have understood. It is earnestness that will take you through, not cleverness - your own or another's."

------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- -

Visit : http://nisargadatta .co.cc/

THE POWER OF EMPTINESS

This excerpt from Elijah Crow's Silence of the Mind is just a taste of a tome so absolutely clear.....well....you'll just have to read the whole thing yourself. Beautiful....

The book can be downloaded and read here:

http://www.scribd. com/doc/34607176 /Elijah-Crow- The-Silence- of-the-Mind

Enjoy!

The Power of Emptiness

The "void" or " psychological emptiness" is a strange phenomenon,
It appears spontaneously, in the pause between two thoughts,
As the old thought ends its course and disappears,
Its end is the gate, natural silence ensues.

Insist in being with it, as much as you can,
The mind is completely silent, we are attentive – a clear consciousness,
All meanings, boundaries disappear – us and the Infinite are "One";
Practically, we have a new mind – always fresh.

Being in the pause – I become infinite!
It separates two worlds. I leave the limited world
And enter Boundlessness, through total melting;
The whole being is calm – a constant sparkle.

There is no time, no space – just everlasting Eternity;
I move in direct contact with life, in a permanent present.
I am Pure Energy, without motivations,
The simplicity of existence integrates us completely.

We really encounter Life only through this "now",
Free from the old, we are able to embrace the new.
All this beauty vanishes, when another thought appears,
It comes from the knowing mind – an old recording.

Let it play its game, do not oppose any resistance,
Encounter it as it is, without any purpose,
It will certainly disappear, and "emptiness" ensues again,
Another opportunity to encounter it practically.

We find the real meaning of Life through this "void",
It is a boundary line between the two worlds:
On the one side the limited, where the "ego" is the master.
On the other, the Infinite, where Love is the master.

Emptiness also separates Light from the darkness,
The permanent chaos through struggle, contradictions and conflicts,
From the harmonious being, equilibrium and joy;
The whole egocentrism perishes, by encountering the void.

Peace, divine order becomes our nature
It changes our way of being, without effort or will,
Only through this psychological void, we become honest and humane,
The Purity of the Energy – makes titans out of pigmies .

Let this "psychological emptiness" be your guide,
In everything you encounter on your spiritual path.
If it is not the starting point, we easily get deceived,
Only through emptiness – we become Love!

IF YOU KNOW HOW TO RELAX, NOTHING CAN DISTURB YOU

Osho:

LIFE WITHOUT IS A CYCLONE -- a constant conflict, turmoil, struggle. But it is only so on the surface -- just as on the surface of the ocean are waves, maddening noise, constant struggle.

BUT THIS IS NOT ALL OF LIFE. Deep down there is also a center -- soundless, silent, no conflict, no struggle. In the center, life is a noiseless flow, relaxed, a river moving with no struggle, with no fight, no violence. Towards that inner center is the search. You can get identified with the surface, with the outer. And then anxiety and anguish follows. This is what has happened to everyone: we are identified with the surface and with the struggle that goes on there.

THE SURFACE IS BOUND TO BE DISTURBED; nothing is wrong in it. And if you can be rooted in the center, the disturbance on the surface will become beautiful; it will have a beauty of its own. If you can be silent within, then all the sounds without become musical. Then nothing is wrong in it; it becomes a play.

But if you don't know the inner core, the silent center, if you are totally identified with the surface, then you will go mad. And everyone is almost mad.

ALL RELIGIOUS TECHNIQUES, techniques of yoga, meditation, Zen, ARE BASICALLY TO HELP YOU TO BE AGAIN IN CONTACT WITH THE CENTER; to move within; to forget the periphery; to leave the periphery for a time being, and to relax into your own being so deeply that the outer disappears completely and only the inner remains.

Once you know how to move backwards, how to step down into yourself, IT IS NOT DIFFICULT; it becomes as easy as anything. But if you don't know, if you know only the mind clinging to the surface, it is very difficult. Relaxing into one's self is not difficult: but clinging to the surface is.

I have heard a Sufi story.
Once it happened that a Sufi fakir was traveling. It was a dark night and he lost his way. It was so dark he couldn't even see where he was moving -- then suddenly he fell into an abyss. He was terrified. He didn't know what was down there in the darkness or how deep the abyss was. So he caught hold of a branch and started praying.
The night was cold. He cried but there was no one to listen, only his own voice was echoed back. And the night was so cold that his hands were becoming frozen, and he knew that sooner or later he would have to leave the branch -- it was going to be difficult to keep on holding it. His hands were getting so frozen that they were already slipping from the branch. Death was absolutely near. Any moment he would fall and die.
And then the last moment came. You can understand how terrified he was. Dying moment-by-moment, then the last moment came, and he saw the branch slipping out of his hand. And his hands were so frozen that there was no way to hold on, so he had to fall.
But the moment he fell he started dancing -- there was no abyss, he was on clear ground. But the whole night he had suffered...

This is the situation. YOU GO ON CLINGING TO THE SURFACE, afraid that if you leave the surface you will be lost. REALLY, CLINGING TO THE SURFACE YOU ARE LOST. But deep down there is darkness and you cannot see any ground; you cannot see anything else than the surface.

All these techniques are to make you courageous, strong, adventurous, so that you can STOP THE HOLDING ON AND FALL WITHIN YOURSELF. That which looks like an abyss, dark, bottomless, is the very ground of your being. Once you leave the surface, the periphery, you will be centered.

THIS CENTERING IS THE AIM. Once you are centered, you can move to the periphery but you will be totally different. The quality of your consciousness will have changed altogether. Then you can move to the periphery but you will never be the periphery again -- you will remain at the center.

AND REMAINING CENTERED AT THE PERIPHERY IS BEAUTIFUL. Then you can enjoy it; it will become a beautiful play. Then there is no conflict; it is a game. Then it will not create tensions within you, and there will be no anguish and no anxiety around you. And any moment that it becomes too much, too heavy on you, you can go back to the original source -- you can have a dip. Then you will be refreshed, rejuvenated, and you can move to the periphery again. Once you know the way...

And the way is not long. YOU ARE NOT GOING ANYWHERE ELSE THAN INTO YOUR OWN SELF, so it is not long. It is just near. The only barrier is your holding on, holding to the periphery, afraid that if you leave it, you will be lost. The fear feels just as if you are going to die. Moving to the inner center is a death -- death in the sense that your identity with the periphery will die, and a new image, a new feeling of your being will arrive.

So if we want to say in a few words what Tantra techniques are, we can say that they are a deep relaxation into oneself, A TOTAL RELAXATION INTO ONESELF.

YOU ARE ALWAYS TENSE; that is the holding, the clinging. YOU ARE NEVER RELAXED, never in a state of let-go. You are always doing something: that doing is the problem. You are never in a state of non-doing, where things are happening and you are just there not doing anything. Breath comes in and goes out, the blood circulates, the body is alive and throbbing; and the breeze blows, and the world goes on spinning around -- and you are not doing anything, you are not a doer; you are simply relaxed and things are happening. When things are happening and you are not a doer, you are totally relaxed. When you are a doer and things are not happening but are being manipulated by you, you are tense.

YOU RELAX PARTIALLY WHILE YOU ARE ASLEEP, but it is not total. Even in your sleep you go on manipulating; even in your sleep you don't allow everything to happen. Watch a man sleeping: you will see that he is very tense, his whole body will be tense. Watch a small child sleeping, he is very relaxed. Or watch an animal, a cat -- a cat is always relaxed. You are not relaxed even while asleep; you are tense, struggling, moving, fighting with something. On your face tensions are there. In dreams you may be fighting, protecting -- doing the same things as when you were awake, repeating them in an inner drama. But you are not relaxed; you are not in a deep let-go.

THAT'S WHY SLEEP IS BECOMING MORE AND MORE DIFFICULT. And psychologists say that if the same trend goes on, soon the day will come when no one will be able to sleep naturally. Sleep will have to be chemically induced because no one will be able to fall naturally into sleep. The day is not very far. Already you are on the way towards it because even while asleep you are only partially asleep, partially relaxed.

MEDITATION IS THE DEEPEST SLEEP. It is total relaxation plus something more; you are totally relaxed and yet alert; awareness is there. TOTAL SLEEP WITH AWARENESS IS MEDITATION. Fully alert, things are happening but you are not resisting, not fighting, not doing. The doer is not there, the doer has gone into sleep. Only a witness is there, a 'non-doer alertness' is there. Then nothing can disturb you.

IF YOU KNOW HOW TO RELAX, THEN NOTHING CAN DISTURB YOU; if you don't know how to relax, then everything will disturb you. I say everything. It is not really something else that disturbs you, everything else is just an excuse. You are almost always ready to be disturbed. If one thing doesn't disturb you, then something else will; but you will get disturbed. You are ready, you have a tendency to get disturbed.

If all the causes are withdrawn from you, even then you will get disturbed. You will find some cause, you will create some cause. If nothing comes from without, you will create something from within -- some thought, some idea -- and you will get disturbed. You need excuses.

ONCE YOU KNOW HOW TO RELAX, NOTHING CAN DISTURB YOU. Not that the world will change, not that things will be different. The world will be the same. But you don't have the tendency, you don't have the madness; you are not constantly ready to be disturbed. THEN ALL THAT HAPPENS AROUND YOU IS SOOTHING -- even the traffic noise becomes soothing... if you are relaxed. Even the market-place becomes soothing. It depends on you. It is an inner quality.

AND THE MORE YOU GO TOWARDS THE CENTER, the more the quality arises; and the more you move towards the periphery, the more you will be disturbed. If you are too much disturbed, or if you are prone to be disturbed, that shows only one thing: that you are existing near the periphery -- nothing else. Simply this. It is an indication that you have made your abode near the surface. And this is a false abode -- because your real home is at the center, the very center of your being.

~OSHO

ALONE IN ENLIGHTENMENT

"I'm nobody.

Who are you?"

Are you nobody too?

-Emily Dickinson


Realization is a very misunderstood. ..I was going to write achievement, but it's not an achievement, just a happening. It is like making a long, steep, tough climb up a mountain, only to get to the top and go, "mmmm, nice view." Then you walk back down. That's it, nothing special, but it revolutionizes everything. Enlightenment is the shocking realization that there is only one. Not one thing, or all is connected, just one. It sounds like a simple re-ordering of words, but the meaning of that word order is profound.

Everyone has the constricting belief that enlightenment or God is over "there" somewhere and their job in life is to "find" it. The problem is that we are "here" and will always be "here"- but if enlightenment is over "there", how can it be found? Actually enlightenment/ God is also here, always was here, but what it is, is actually not what 99% of seekers really want. Seekers want the enlightenment they have been sold: being happy, important, full of love, no more problems. Like a continuous orgasmic or drug high. That is the reason they are seeking in the first place, the wished for blissful finish line. If anyone really understood what awakening was, no one would want it. Enlightenment is about "alone."

A true encounter with the Absolute/God reveals that no one is doing the experiencing, only the absolute revealing itself to the absolute. Nothing exists, yet there i s the appearance of existence. Realization is alone (all-one). But everyone fears alone, so they run to spiritual practice, patterns, lovers, food, booze, any distraction to avoid the only true fear. The fear of no self (often called emptiness) the fear that "I" do not exist. Fear of no self is not the fear of death, but the fear that you as a human being do not exist at all. That is where all the "spiritual groups" get caught, they are looking for what's in it for "them" or "us". Realization is one and alone for there is no other. Everything that tells you that you are separate from anything else falls away. Thus you are alone, with the appearance of others. The initial glimpse of this is so terrifying to ego it responds with the emotions of meaninglessness and despair. But as soon as the mind falls away, those emotions go too and all that is left is What Is, and the marvelous curiosity about the dream and what is going to happen next.


"The great path has no gates,

thousands of roads enter it.

When you pass through the gateless gate,

you walk the universe alone."

- Mumon -


Suffering is the belief in the story of me. The question is, who are you without your story? Too frightening is this thought, so everyone keeps struggling because ego wants to keep the story of "me" going. Seeking becomes the strategy to overcome this fear, for as long as there is seeking, there is a seeker. Asleep people have experiences to confirm their existence. I am good, I am bad, I am in love, I am working hard, I am eating ice cream, I am suffering. All are defined with I, but if there were no more I, then who are you? This is the question that takes us to see there is no True Self. Only false self and no self. You don't try to improve self, you kill it to break free of the illusion of the dreamstate. You kill it by finding out it was never there to be killed. The trick to this is to die while alive and then see what is left. Form will still be here, but now you will no longer be a person, just look like one, but who can you tell this to? and that can make this process a lonely one at times.

We can be in a room full of people and still feel alone. The deepest truth is that everything is a dream or a movie, nothing exists, not even you. Connecting and relationships are the way fictional dream characters hide the fact that nothing exists, and if anyone pulls away, the other characters (your friends and family) will do everything to pull you back into the dream to confirm with them that everything exists and has meaning. Waking up is willingly drifting into that fear to see what will happen, doing it because we can no longer stand the alternative of not doing it.


"The end of illusion,

is the end of you."

- U.G. Krishnamurti -


The road to all of this is a most solitary thing. Even if a few people walk together for a while, each one knows that they are alone and that they can not expect anything from the others, nor can depend on anybody. The only thing he can do is to share his path with those who accompany him, and know that accompaniment could end at any moment. So it is normal to look for silence in the mountains or forest or the desert. These periods are like a lover's retreat, to be with his own inner silence. Silence becomes their lover.

The world for the awake is a rather solitary place, and learning to be comfortable in this state takes some work because our conditioning to be social is still in strong effect for the body/mind. Once one learns to enjoy themselves just as much with a group of friends as totally alone, that is when they have reached a new plateau in their state. Most people are simply social because they are so alone and want to do anything to avoid that feeling, while those awakened realized that loneliness was just the core of what they are, went into it - and now they are like with a lover whether there are people around or not. They know there is no longer an other, so they need no other to feel "connected." Hard to explain in words.

Loneliness can also affect the newly awake because it is very draining energetically to spend a lot of time around the asleep and their make believe dramas and hopes. It gets hard to play that game, and you wish simply for more time alone. There is still the appearance of other forms, so we still interact with things like we used to - just it gets very hard for the dream to trick us anymore into thinking "something" is happening with some "other person." But still, you have to act like things are real. It may not be a real rainstorm, but you go inside if "you" don't want to get wet.


"The absolute is a very lonely place.

You are the only one there.

Of course everyone is the only one there."

- Richard Rose -


http://www.howdietalks.com/alone.htm

BALANCING ACT

Beloved Master,
The peaks are getting pretty wonderful, but the valleys are deeper and darker than ever. Finding balance seems impossible. What to do?

Osho:

There is no need to do anything. YOU ARE NOT TO FIND BALANCE; BALANCE WILL FIND YOU. You simply move. When the valley comes, you go into the valley. WHEN DARKNESS SURROUNDS YOU, ENJOY IT; feel blissful in the velvety touch of it. Move into it, into the infinite magnificence of it. Darkness has a soothing quality which no light can have. And the valley is a rest: like the night, like death.

NO NEED TO TRY TO FIND BALANCE, THE BALANCE WILL FIND YOU. You simply move into the valley. When the valley comes, you accept it. You not only accept it, you welcome it. You enjoy it, you delight in it -- darkness is beautiful. And when the valley goes and you move towards the peak, that too is perfectly beautiful. That is beautiful: the light, the morning, the sun.

But don't cling to either. CLINGING CREATES TROUBLE. Through clinging, comes anguish. If you cling to the peak and you say, "I would not like to go to the valley again," then you will be in trouble. Then at the very peak, you have created the valley. Then, already, the suffering has started. You are afraid: the fear has entered, the agony is already there. You are no more happy in the valley; you have destroyed the peak.

And when you are in the valley, you will suffer that "now the valley has come." You will suffer the valley, and you will not be able to enjoy the peak. This is the ordinary situation.

WHEN YOU ARE HAPPY, YOU BECOME AFRAID: Is this happiness going to stay, or will it be gone? Now fear eats away at your happiness like a worm and poisons it. You are happy, and yet you are not happy. Something is already dead: you have become apprehensive of the future. And when you are unhappy, of course, you are unhappy. When you are happy you cannot be happy, so how can you be happy when you are unhappy? The whole life becomes a vicious circle of unhappiness.

Now, listen! WHEN YOU ARE AT THE PEAK, DANCE! I know, and you know, that the peak is not going to last forever; there is no need. Because if it lasts forever, it will be such a tension you will not be able to tolerate it. It will be such an excitement that you will not find any rest in it. It will be dangerous, it will kill you. No need for it to last forever. But while it lasts, dance, enjoy, and sing it -- KNOWING WELL THAT IT IS GOING TO BE LOST AGAIN. But knowing it, one has to enjoy it more before it is lost.

And remember, THIS IS THE MIRACLE: WHEN YOU ENJOY IT MORE, IT LASTS LONGER. When you are happy in it and dancing, it forgets to go away from you; it lingers with you. When you don't cling to it, it clings to you. This is the whole secret.

And when it is gone, then too it is not gone. It has given you such a deep blissfulness, that now go into the valley and you can rest in darkness. THEN THE VALLEY BECOMES RELAXATION AND THE PEAK BECOMES ENJOYMENT. Then the peak becomes the day, and the valley becomes the night; then the peak becomes activity, and the valley becomes passivity.

ONE HAS TO ENJOY THE NIGHT ALSO. That is the only way to enjoy the day. And if you enjoy the day, a great night comes with great rest -- refreshes you, rejuvenates you.

And remember always: GREATER THE PEAK, GREATER WILL BE THE VALLEY. Otherwise how the peak can be greater? If you go to the Himalayas, then you will find the greater the peak the greater the valley. If you are afraid of the valley, then don't ask for the peaks. Then move on plain ground. There will be no peak and no valley.

THAT IS THE MOST MISERABLE LIFE: where there is no peak, no valley. One simply vegetates. It is not a life. One simply drags. It is a monotony. It is not a dialogue; it is a monologue. A dialogue needs duality, a dialogue needs contradiction, a dialogue needs polarity, a dialogue needs paradox. And within the paradox, you move from one pole to another.

Don't be worried about balance. Balance will seek you: I will see that balance seeks you. You simply do this much: while on the peak, dance; while in the valley, rest. ACCEPT THE VALLEY; ACCEPT THE PEAK. Both are parts of the one whole, and you cannot deny one part. They are two aspects of the same coin.

Remember, ONE WHO ENJOYS MORE IS BOUND TO SUFFER MORE -- because he becomes very sensitive. But suffering is not bad. If you understand it rightly, suffering cleanses.

If you understand rightly, SADNESS HAS A DEPTH TO IT WHICH NO HAPPINESS CAN EVER HAVE. A person who is simply happy is always superficial. A person who has not known sorrow and has not known sadness, has not known the depths. He has not touched the bottom of his being; he has remained just on the periphery. One has to move within these two banks. Within these two banks flows the river.

And I tell you, balance will seek you, if you accept both and you live both. WHATSOEVER HAPPENS, YOU WELCOME IT. Suddenly, one day you will see balance has come. And when balance comes to you, then it is something totally different than that balance that you can force upon yourself.

IF YOU FORCE THE BALANCE, IT WILL BE A SORT OF CONTROL. And a control is always artificial. And a control is always ugly. And a control has a violence in it. It is forced, artificial. When balance comes to you, it is a happening. Suddenly it descends on you. Heavens open and the spirit of God, like a dove, descends in you.

ALL THAT IS GREAT ALWAYS COMES. All that YOU make is always small, petty. It is never great. All that you do is going to be lesser than you. ALL THAT IS GREAT -- YOU HAVE TO ALLOW IT. Balance will find you. God will find you. You just be ready.

And this is readiness: to ACCEPT WHATSOEVER COMES, to ACCEPT IT WITH GRATEFULNESS. Even sorrow, even sadness, even the valley... dark.

OSHO
Come Follow To You
Vol 2, Ch #8

The Myth of "Doing Nothing"

Colin Drake

I recently was talking to a friend who was complaining of existential anxiety; which was dispelled by reading a good book on nonduality or attending an inspiring satsang, but which always returned. So I asked him what he 'did' on a daily basis to establish himself in nondual awareness, whereupon he grinned sheepishly indicating that he did nothing. Which made me ponder the teachings of many modern teachers of nondualism who say there is nothing to 'do' and everything just 'happens by itself'. Indeed even in my book Beyond the Separate Self there is a chapter entitled 'Nothing to Achieve, Find or Get' which could give the impression that there is nothing that one needs to do . However I can assure you that if one continues to live in the same headspace without 'doing anything' then there will no change in one's outlook and anxiety levels. For as I say in the book:

At a deeper level than this flow of fleeting objects (thoughts and sensations) we are this constant subject, awareness itself; this is already the case and as such cannot be achieved. All that is required is to realize this!

So awareness is central to our being, whilst thoughts and sensations are peripheral. This is self-evident for without awareness our thoughts and sensations would pass unnoticed. Thus we cannot lose this awareness; we just need to stop overlooking it.

It is impossible to get that awareness which you already are, and thus have in full abundance. All that is required is to recognize this. In this respect you do need to 'get' this, but this is in fact nothing as it is not a thing but the 'ground' from which all things arise, in which they exist and back into which they subside. So there is in fact 'no thing to get' and you do need to 'get' nothing(ness) !

So although there is:

'nothing to achieve,' we do need to realize the deeper level of pure awareness, for this to be the case.

'nothing to find', we do need to stop overlooking the awareness that is always present.

'nothing to get', we do need to recognize that we already have this awareness.

This realization, or recognition, of the deeper level of pure awareness is easily accomplished by directly investigating our own moment-to-moment experience. My book aims to provide a simple straightforward framework in which this investigation can take place. However even after the recognition of this deeper level we do need to cultivate, and establish, this by further investigation/ contemplation for as it says in The Tibetan Book of the Dead:

All those of all [differing] potential, regardless of their acumen or dullness,
May realize [this intrinsic awareness].

However, for example, even though sesame is the source of oil and milk of butter,
But there will be no extract if these are unpressed or unchurned,
Similarly, even though all beings actually possess the seed of buddhahood,
Sentient beings will not attain buddhahood without experiential cultivation.

Nonetheless, even a cowherd will attain liberation if he engages in experiential cultivation.

For, even though one may not know how to elucidate [this state] intellectually,
One will [through experiential cultivation] become manifestly established in it.
One whose mouth has actually tasted molasses,
Does not need others to explain its taste.


Even after one has 'tasted molasses' this taste will dissipate after a time, requiring further ingesting for the taste to reappear. In the same way the effect of 'awakening' to the reality of the deeper level of pure awareness will dissipate if one 'nods off' again and re-identifies with the mind/body. So one needs to continually inquire into/investigate/ contemplate the nature of Self and Reality for this 'awakening' to become established. It is only in this established awakening that all existential anxiety is banished.

Beyond the Separate Self, by Colin Drake,
is available at http://nonduality. com/btss. htm

The Lost Satsang - Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Watch the Trailer: http://netinetifilm s.com/films- satsang.shtml


Excerpts from Nisargadatta' s Lost Satsang:


The whole manifestation of this world is an expression of the same Consciousness that you are.

You should not love anything other than your true nature, Consciousness. Deep desires, deep expectations: How can that be love?

Your body identity is attracted to objects. It creates desires and you treat them as high priorities. Understanding yourself should be your only priority.

Your body desires will lead you nowhere.

~ ~ ~

If you don't understand the "I Am" how can you understand the rest?

~ ~ ~

To abide in consciousness is the true religion. The human brain creates religions.

~ ~ ~

Consciousness has to appear in this form, so this form can recognize Consciousness.

~ ~ ~

How can words explain that from which words originate?

~ ~ ~

Everything depends upon your form, but you are formless.

~ ~ ~

Don't ask me practical questions. I cannot relate to them. I never talk to the body identity level. Stay in the "I am". That's all there is to do.

~ ~ ~

Without food there is death and the idea "I am" vanishes. Consciousness is beyond any idea.

You can only watch events happen. You can't use Consciousness to do or undo anything.

~ ~ ~

Your body identity is like a very tight screw. Your idea of being an individual, is a screw. You must loosen it up. Let go of your personal identity and the screw will open as much as needed.

You are full of concepts. Just do as I say.

~ ~ ~

If you wish to use your intellect dwell on your nine months in the womb. What is in the womb is not different from what is happening now.

~ ~ ~

Anything that can show you what you are is actually pointing out what you are not.

~ ~ ~

Questions only exist as long as you think you are the body and the individual.

~ ~ ~

What I am saying is very simple.

You listen to me or you can go.

~ ~ ~

Grasp the knowingness principle and move ahead in life. Like a swimmer caught in a vortex has to dive to the bottom of the river, then has to swim to the surface, outside of the vortex, and only then he is free.

~ ~ ~

We live like worms in hot sand, always needing help, but I am not a worm. I am the manifested and the unmanifested.

~ ~ ~

Before death comes it is necessary to follow a Sage or a Guru.

~ ~ ~

My Guru's Guru clapped while his vital breath was leaving his body. Will you?

A Course in Consciousness

The following is from A Course in Consciousness, by Stanley Sobottka:

http://www.faculty. virginia. edu/consciousnes s/

Chapter 18. Practices and teachers
18.1. Why practice?
On p. 8-9 of Mindfulness in Plain English (1994), Buddhist teacher Bante Henepola Gunaratana says,

"Go to a party. Listen to the laughter, that brittle-tongued voice that says fun on the surface and fear underneath. Feel the tension, feel the pressure. Nobody really relaxes. They are faking it. Go to a ball game. Watch the fans in the stands. Watch the irrational fit of anger. Watch the uncontrolled frustration bubbling forth that masquerades under the guise of enthusiasm or team spirit. Booing, catcalls and unbridled egotism in the name of team loyalty. Drunkenness, fights in the stands. These are people trying desperately to release tension from within. These are not people who are at peace with themselves. Watch the news on TV. Listen to the lyrics in popular songs. You find the same theme repeated over and over in variations. Jealousy, suffering, discontent, and stress. Life seems to be a perpetual struggle, some enormous effort against staggering odds."

Question: Does this paragraph remind you of anyone you know?

What is described in the above paragraph is not living--it is surviving. But spiritual practice can transform a life of survival into a life of peace.

Suffering is intrinsic to the dream because of the perception of pervasive conflict and potential war between the split pairs. From the point of view of the individual, the purpose of all spiritual practice is to awaken from the dream of suffering. Since the basis of all splits is the ego, or illusory "me", awakening means to see that there is no "me". However, expecting the ego to see this is like asking something that does not exist to see that it does not exist. Spiritual practice does not get rid of the ego because there is no ego to get rid of.

Awakening can only happen by seeing from outside the split that there is no split. Since the essence of the ego is the false sense of personal doership, awakening means to see that there is no doer and there is no choice. Paradoxically, awakening is usually preceded by considerable effort but it is never that of a doer. For practice to happen, intense earnestness and intention are usually necessary. (Of course, if they are supposed to happen, they will. If not, they won't.) An immediate and lasting benefit of practice is that, even before awakening, our understanding of suffering deepens, and this greater understanding is inspiration for further practice and progress.

One misconception that is common among beginners on the spiritual path is that suffering and sacrifice in themselves are useful spiritual practices. (This is undoubtedly reinforced by the biblical story of Jesus suffering for our sins, and the suffering of the Christian martyrs.) However, since separation is the basis of suffering, seeking to suffer in the hopes of finding spiritual truth in it can only increase the sense of separation, and thereby increase suffering. Only the individual can suffer. The one good thing about suffering is that its presence tells us that we are still identified, and a keen examination of it will tell us with what we are identified. In this way suffering is actually our guide to freedom from suffering. Every instance of suffering is another opportunity to understand it. The path towards understanding is the path towards liberation.

Question: Have you ever known anyone who thought that suffering and sacrifice in themselves were useful spiritual practices?

18.2. The importance of being aware
We are not individuals; we are pure Awareness/Presence (see Sections 9.3, 11.10, 14.3). It is because we transcend the ego that we can see that it does not exist, and we can be aware that the effort to see that it does not exist is not our effort.

Bondage and suffering are due to identification of Consciousness with the "I"-concept and all of its trappings, resulting in the illusory "I" and all of its problems. To be effective, any practice depends on the increasing awareness of these identifications. For this reason, spiritual practice is better termed awareness practice. When the seeker understands that suffering is the direct result of identification, there is a strong incentive to become aware of it. Thus, becoming aware of the connection between a specific suffering and the identification from which it springs is a valuable, even necessary, awareness practice and is the first step to becoming disidentified and free.

We saw in Chapter 11 that we can distinguish between three levels of identification. The first is identification with the body-mind organism, but without entityfication, i.e., without any sense of personal identity. This identification is necessary for the organism to function and survive, and causes no suffering because there is no entity to suffer. We are not concerned with this identification in this course--in fact, it is the state of being awakened. The second level is identification with the "I"-concept, which produces the illusory entity with a sense of personal doership. The third level is identification with various thoughts, images, and emotions, resulting in the sense of ownership of them, so they become "my" thoughts, "my" self-images, "my" emotions, and "my" suffering.

Disidentification at the third level means becoming aware of all of our thoughts, images, feelings, emotions, and sensations, and accepting them rather than resisting them. This is the key to the beginning of the end of suffering. This can happen while still retaining the image of the self as doer. Thus, at this level, it is unimportant whether the seeker still thinks of him/her self as the doer.

The first step in disidentification at the third level is to use a specific experience of suffering as the impetus to become aware of the real source of that suffering. For example, if "I" feel angry because "I" think "I" have been victimized by somebody, my first step is to become acutely aware of the anger and the associated thoughts, images, and body sensations. As was discussed in Section 11.7, anger at being victimized always comes from seeing an image of myself as being helpless, and another image of the victimizer as having some kind of power over me. Neither side of the polar pair can exist without the other. Both are nothing but mental images.

Exercise: Close your eyes and watch your thoughts come, change, and go. Look for the owner of the thoughts. Can you find one?
Now watch your feelings and emotions come, change, and go. Look for the owner of the feelings and emotions. Can you find one?
Now watch your body sensations come, change, and go. Look for the owner of the body sensations. Can you find one?

Now, where does a feeling of helplessness, which is the essence of victimhood, come from? It may come from the thought that there is something "wrong" with "me" for being so helpless. Thus, we see that this experience of suffering may have as its roots identification with a self-image of defectiveness. Clearly, defectiveness implies a doer that is defective. Without the concept of doership, there could be no victim and no suffering, not to mention no victimizer. But imagined doership is the problem in identification at the second level.

Exercise: Close your eyes and look for the thinker of your thoughts. Can you find one?
Now look for the feeler of your feelings. Can you find one?
Now look for the experiencer of your body sensations. Can you find one?

There are two important lessons to be learned from these exercises. The first is that the image I see of myself as victim means that I cannot be the victim! I am what is aware of the image, so I cannot be the image! This is the most fundamental step that anybody can take in disidentification. Whatever I am aware of cannot be me because I am what is aware! This one realization is enough to produce a gigantic crack in the bonds of identification.

The second important lesson is just a generalization of the first. Since nothing that I see can be me, there is no object, thing, or entity that can be me. I am not a person, not a mind, not a body, not a being, not a thought, not a feeling, not an emotion, not an image, not an observer, not anything. And most importantly, I am not a doer, not a thinker, not a decider, and not a chooser. Now we have progressed to disidentification at the second level.

If I am not anything, then what am I? The answer is simple: I am pure Awareness/Presence that is aware of all things and is present in all things. What could be more simple, and yet so profound and so liberating?

Exercise: This exercise is the essence of all spiritual practice. It helps us to identify with our true nature, which is Awareness, rather than with the mind, which consists of thoughts, feelings, emotions, sensations, and perceptions. When we identify with Awareness, we are immune from all changes because Awareness never changes. When we identify with the mind, we are subject to its constant changing whims.

First, become aware of anything in the mind that is changing, like a thought, emotion, or body sensation. Can you realize that, if it is something that you are aware of, then you cannot be it because you are what is aware of it?

Second, if you are what is aware of it, what are you really? Look and see!

http://www.faculty. virginia. edu/consciousnes s/