Be Still and Know Thy Self

"A man knows when he has found his vocation when he stops thinking about how to live and begins to live."

~ Thomas Merton

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“The dawning of Self-recognition is the end of isolation, the end of separation, the end of feeling cut off from life, from others. It’s to know the heart of all beings.”

~ Adyashanti

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Buddha In Glory

Center of all centers, core of cores,
almond self-enclosed, and growing sweet--
all this universe, to the furthest stars
all beyond them, is your flesh, your fruit.

Now you feel how nothing clings to you;
your vast shell reaches into endless space,
and there the rich, thick fluids rise and flow.
Illuminated in your infinite peace,

a billion stars go spinning through the night,
blazing high above your head.
But in you is the presence that
will be, when all the stars are dead.

~ Rainer Maria Rilke

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"If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore; and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which has been shown!"

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

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When it's cold and raining,
you are more beautiful.
And the snow brings me
even closer to your lips.
The inner secret, that which was never born,
you are that freshness, and I am with you now.
I can't explain the goings,
or the comings. You enter suddenly,
and I am nowhere again.
Inside the majesty.

— Rumi

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The Confirmation

Yes, yours, my love, is the right human face.
I in my mind had waited for this long,
Seeing the false and searching for the true,
Then found you as a traveler finds a place
Of welcome suddenly amid the wrong
Valleys and rocks and twisting roads. But you,
What shall I call you? A fountain in a waste,
A well of water in a country dry,
Or anything that's honest and good, an eye
That makes the whole world seem bright. Your open heart,
Simple with giving, gives the primal deed,
The first good world, the blossom, the blowing seed,
The hearth, the steadfast land, the wandering sea.
Not beautiful or rare in every part.
But like yourself, as they were meant to be.

~ Edwin Muir

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The raft across the ocean of samsara
is the strong decision to be free.
This intense desire is absolutely necessary.
The intensity of this desire is itself the Satguru,
the pain in the heart is the Self calling.

~ Papaji

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A Dream Unfolding

Time is very precious. Do not wait until you are dying to understand your spiritual nature. If you do it now, you will discover resources of kindness and compassion you didn’t know you had. It is from this mind of intrinsic wisdom and compassion that you can truly benefit others.... Moment by moment, we should look at life as if it were a dream unfolding... .In this relaxed, more open state of being, we have the opportunity to gain the infallible means of dying well, which is recognition of our absolute nature.

~ Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche

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So Cheap

I am all hollowed out now
Like a reed.
I gave everything for this.
And still I laughingly wonder:
How could it have been so cheap?

~ Adyashanti

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"Without concepts, leave your awareness, just as it is, in the steady vision of appearances. If you can do so, that is the best of meditations. In terms of recognizing the nature of awareness, the spiritual mentors of the
past stated that it could be ascertained in the interval following the cessation of one thought and prior to the arising of the next thought. In that interval there is an emptiness. How long is this interval? It's a mistake to think it is short in duration. Rather, it is the very nature of both samsara and nirvana. In the very steady vision of appearances, right in the instant, in the instantaneous vision of the instantaneous moment of appearances, you can recognize the essential nature of the mind."

~ Han Shan

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"Most seekers exacerbate their itching, scratching esoteric maps and dimly pondering weighty conundrums until the light falls flat from warm eyes to cold ground, leaving themselves in a yet deeper dark, wondering how in hell they got there. Truly, what's so difficult about simply standing still and watching this luminous darkness rise and fall in perfect harmony? The more one fusses with doctrines and dogmas, the further one roams from their own cozy hearth. Conniving with alchemy's elixirs and potions, they end up fouling their own nest. All night long, again and again, they disturb the family peace with pointless droning debates, poisoning the air with stale breath and drowning out the nightingale' s melancholy sonority. Were they to quietly open their ears and listen, true to that soulful sound, they could finally close the book on heaven and hell, blissfully, and let the relatives relax.

~ Gyatrul Rinpoche

What is Beyond Consciousness?

The water of the mind, how clear it is!
Gazing at it, the boundaries are invisible.
But as soon as even a slight thought arises,
ten thousand images crowd it.
Attach to them, and they become real.
Be carried by them, and it will be difficult to return.
How painful to see a person trapped in the ten-fold delusions.

~Ryokan

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Watch yourself closely and you will see that whatever be the content of consciousness, the witnessing of it does not depend on the content. Awareness is itself and does not change with the event. The event may be pleasant or unpleasant, minor or important, awareness is the same. Take note of the peculiar nature of pure awareness, its natural self-identity, without the least trace of self-consciousness, and go to the root of it and you will soon realize that awareness is your true nature, and nothing you may be aware of, you can call your own.

When the content is viewed without likes and dislikes, the consciousness of it is awareness. But still there is a difference between awareness as reflected in consciousness and pure awareness beyond consciousness. Reflected awareness, the sense "I am aware" is the witness, while pure awareness is the essence of reality. Reflection of the sun in a drop of water is a reflection of the sun, no doubt, but not the sun itself. Between awareness reflected in consciousness as the witness and pure awareness there is a gap, which the mind cannot cross.

~Sri Nisargadatta

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The next time you feel extreme anger, anxiety, jealousy, or sadness, just notice each thought that is feeding that state. Let each thought fall away quickly, one after the other, like flashes of light. Then just rest with the full sensory and emotional experience in the body, without placing any agenda on it, without trying to think yourself out of it. In that moment, you stop mentally running from suffering.

~Scott Kiloby

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Our personal viewpoints (self, other, world, duality) and impersonal viewpoints (no self, no other, no world, nonduality), are equal in that they arise and fall, leaving no trace. They only leave a trace if we follow one, thinking it is closer to truth or closer to our present experience. But nothing can bring us closer to our present experience. It's already here, appearing as the present viewpoint.

~Scott Kiloby

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Breath is Truth

Some people practice throughout their entire lives just by paying attention to breathing. Everything that is true about anything is true about breath: it's impermanent; it arises and it passes away. Yet if you didn't breathe, you would become uncomfortable; so then you would take in a big inhalation and feel comfortable again. But if you hold onto the breath, it's no longer
comfortable, so you have to breathe out again. All the time shifting, shifting.

Sylvia Boorstein

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POEMS by Alan Larus

Suddenly

Woke up in a play,
on a crooked way

Comedy from start
Much too big, my part
And in awe I am too small
Got a little light, that's all

Life's impossible to swallow
Like a closed door,
what may follow?
A coming oh so handily,
transformation of the alchemy.

I am the way and the truth and the life.
No one comes to the Father except through me.

http://www.ferryfee .com/bluesky/ Suddenly. html


In life to realise

At the end of winding road,
such a gift you gave to me
Tumbling down the mighty load,
in a white house by the sea

But my maker saved this spark
It is shining in the dark

Lesson learnt
Getting burnt,
where no shelter is

To the rays of bliss.

http://www.ferryfee .com/bluesky/ The_gift. htm

I Salute You

I salute you. I am your friend, and my love for you goes deep. There is nothing I can give you which you have not. But there is much, very much, that, while I cannot give it, you can take. No heaven can come to us unless our hearts find rest in it today. Take heaven! No peace lies in the future which is not hidden in this present little instant. Take peace! The gloom of the world is but a shadow. Behind it, yet within our reach, is joy. There is radiance and glory in darkness, could we but see. And to see, we have only to look. I beseech you to look!

Life is so generous a giver. But we, judging its gifts by their covering, cast them away as ugly or heavy or hard. Remove the covering, and you will find beneath it a living splendor, woven of love by wisdom, with power. Welcome it, grasp it, and you touch the angel's hand that brings it to you. Everything we call a trial, a sorrow or a duty, believe me, that angel's hand is there. The gift is there and the wonder of an overshadowing presence. Your joys, too, be not content with them as joys. They, too, conceal diviner gifts.

Life is so full of meaning and purpose, so full of beauty beneath its covering, that you will find earth but cloaks your heaven. Courage then to claim it; that is all! But courage you have, and the knowledge that we are pilgrims together, wending through unknown country home.

And so, at this time, I greet you, not quite as the world sends greetings, but with profound esteem and with the prayer that for you, now and forever, the day breaks and shadows flee away.

~ Fra Giovanni ~ Christmas Eve, 1513

Real Life Begins With Self-Realization

As long as consciousness experiences itself as limited with a particular body and mind, it needs some method of interiorization, such as Yoga, to extricate itself from the world of appearances in order to realize the true nature of its own Self. Yoga practice prepares for the awakening to take place from the inner Self.

Only by this awakening or rebirth is the deeper realm of Being realized. Thus the consciousness drops all false associations and realizes its own innate nature which is Peace and Bliss. It now discerns directly the changeful realms of mind and matter as not-self, as mere variable objects lit up by Itself as the subject. Through continued discerning practice, Self-Analysis, consciousness becomes fully established in the Truth of its own Being and that is Self-Realization.

This means that no object or mental wave has any more power to mislead consciousness away from its true nature which is pure awareness, peace and innate happiness.

Real Life begins with Self-realization.

~ Srimati Margaret Coble

WHAT'S NEXT?

All We Can't Possibly Know

Perhaps our collective situation at present -- of waiting for the new to emerge -- is analogous to a kind of planetary Cloud of Unknowing during this apparent planetary Dark Night (of the World Soul).

Many of us can't help but sense ourselves to be waiting for something to happen that will usher in evidence of a radically new world from the ashes of the old, which otherwise seem to lay in smoking piles everywhere about us.

...and this especially in light of the endless messages received by various visionaries and channeled beings; in light of our individual dreams and visions; nay -- in light of our individual and sovereign core knowing of the living truth that we are here to witness and live through!

It may also be (paradoxically enough) part and parcel of the process we are involved in to find ourselves necessarily engaged in the activity of exhausting our ability to wait altogether.

Indeed, waiting, as an activity of time in relation to time, may be our final thing to learn to surrender and let go of.

Click here for more http://feelingthefuture.blogspot.com/

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Losing Hope: The Final Attachment

Remember in the last update when I said...."if we can walk through this VERY narrow doorway, fully present and completely void of an agenda, we will experience a major shift on many levels"?

Well, not that I need to tell you, but we are still trying to squeeze our full-bodied selves through that very small opening. And our success rate...or the ease by which it happens... has everything to do with the "completely void of an agenda" part.

Truth is, most of us want through that doorway so badly that we are trying e v e r y t h i n g we can think of to bust down that door and get the hell out of Dodge.

We're being forced through sheer frustration to find our way out of this paradoxical box we've locked ourselves into...forced into surrendering to a new way of seeing and doing things, to accessing and using a whole new set of tools in an entirely new realm of human experience.

Click here for more:
http://consciousco-creationalcoaching.blogspot.com/2010/08/losing-hope-final-attachment.html

A Christmas Reflection

"Into this world, this demented inn, in which there is absolutely no room for him at all, Christ has come uninvited. But because he cannot be at home in it, because he is out of place in it, and yet he must be in it, his place is with those others for whom there is no room. His place is with those who do not belong, who are rejected by power because they are regarded as weak, those who are discredited, who are denied the status of persons, tortured, exterminated. With those for whom there is no room, Christ is present in this world."

~ Thomas Merton

"And the deepest level of communication is not communication, but communion. It is wordless. It is beyond words, and it is beyond speech, and it is beyond concept. Not that we discover a new unity. We discover an older unity. My dear brothers, we are already one. But we imagine that we are not. And what we have to recover is our original unity. What we have to be is what we are."

~ The Asian Journal of Thomas Merton

"A life is either all spiritual or not spiritual at all. No man can serve two masters. Your life is shaped by the end you live for. You are made in the image of what you desire."

~ Thomas Merton

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Many who come to non-dual "seeking" come from educated backgrounds. As I have stated before, many look at "enlightenment" as a crown to a "good" education. But what is in your mind does not lead to the truth. In some, perhaps many, circumstances, education can be a stumbling block to awareness. I have been a real advocate for the "simple seekers". People like Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection. A simple monk, shoe maker, and cook, Brother Lawrence was responsible for The Practice of the Presence of God, a small book of "Oneness" that is a classic of Christian Mysticism. Or St. Therese of Lisieux, who's The Story of a Soul is a testimony of a life of Love in action. Or look at Ramana Maharshi, or Nisargadatta Maharaj, or even the Christ. Simple earnestness, simple Love. These lead to understanding. These lead to Truth. You can study under well educated people. You can read all the spiritual literature you can lay your hands on. But living a life of service, trust and Love is what takes you to the Absolute. To be in "God's" presence, to "be" God's Love, is the Absolute. You can't learn it. You can only "live it".

My "teaching" is that we ARE unconditional Love. No person, no "God", just Love unfolding. The "nothingness" everyone talks about is seen as "everythingness" from here. I have uncovered the truth of my "faith" by living it, trusting it, and being it. A "teacher" lives his "teaching". Realize you are Love unfolding, and live accordingly. It is no more complicated than that!

~ Bill Lindley http://ahimsananda. blogspot. com/

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"There are so many people who live alone, crushed by their loneliness. It is obvious that too much solitude can drive people off the rails, to depression and alcoholism. More and more people seem to have lost their balance because their family life has been unhappy. There are so many who are lost, taking drugs, turning to delinquency; there are so many who are looking for a family and a meaning in their lives. In years to come, we are going to need so many small communities which welcome lost and lonely people, offering them a family and a sense of belonging. At other times, Christians who wanted to follow Jesus opened hospitals and schools. Now that there are so many of these, Christians must commit themselves to the new Communities of Welcome, to live with people who have no other family, and to show them that they are loved."

- Jean Vanier, founder of The L'Arche Communities

BODIES SEPARATE, MINDS OVERLAPPING, AND SOULS ARE ONE

THIS MIND THAT YOU ARE CARRYING IN YOUR HEAD HAS ARISEN OVER CENTURIES, MILLENNIA. Your small mind carries the whole experience of humanity -- and not only of humanity: of animals, of birds, of plants, of rocks. You have passed through all those experiences. All that has happened up to now has happened in you also. In a very small nutshell, you carry the whole experience of existence. THAT'S WHAT YOUR MIND IS. In fact, to say it is yours is not right: it is collective; it belongs to us all.

Modern psychology has been approaching it, particularly Jungian analysis has been approaching it, and they have started feeling something like a collective unconscious. YOUR MIND IS NOT YOURS -- IT BELONGS TO US ALL.

Our bodies are very separate; our minds are not so separate. Our bodies are clear-cutly separate; our minds overlap -- and our souls are one.

BODIES SEPARATE, MINDS OVERLAPPING, AND SOULS ARE ONE. I don't have a different soul and you don't have a different soul. At the very center of existence we meet and are one. That's what God is: the meeting-point of all. Between the God and the world -- 'the world' means the bodies -- is mind. Mind is a bridge: a bridge between the body and the soul, between the world and God.

~ OSHO - A Sudden Clash of Thunder

IN SILENCE

Be still
Listen to the stones of the wall.
Be silent, they try
To speak your
Name.
Listen
To the living walls.
Who are you?
Who
Are you? Whose
Silence are you?

Who (be quiet)
Are you (as these stones
Are quiet). Do not
Think of what you are
Still less of
What you may one day be.
Rather
Be what you are (but who?) be
The unthinkable one
You do not know.

O be still, while
You are still alive,
And all things live around you
Speaking (I do not hear)
To your own being,
Speaking by the Unknown
That is in you and in themselves.
“I will try, like them
To be my own silence:
And this is difficult. The whole
world is secretly on fire. The stones
Burn, even the stones
They burn me. How can a man be still or
Listen to all things burning? How can he dare
To sit with them when
All their silence
Is on fire?”

From In the Dark Before Dawn, by Thomas Merton

http://www.innerdirections.org/journal/poetry/the-poetry-of-thomas-merton/

We are the Same One

If the only prayer your say in your entire life is
"thank you," that would suffice.

~ Meister Eckhart

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To Meet in the Play

I am officially no longer an 'Advaita teacher' or 'Nonduality teacher' - if, indeed, I ever was one. Life cannot be put into words, and however beautiful the words of Advaita/Nonduality are, they must be discarded in the end. I could never claim to be any sort of authority on this stuff. I will continue to speak, to sing my song to those who are open to listening, but gone is the need to adhere to any tradition, to use Advaita-speak to avoid real, authentic human engagement, to pretend that I am in any way more or less special than you, to kid you that I know more than you, to play the 'teacher' by refusing to meet you in the play, to stop listening to you because I see you as 'still stuck in the dream' or 'still a person'. This message is about love, in the true sense of the word - otherwise it is simply nihilism masquerading as freedom. The 'Advaita Police' reply 'Who cares?'. I say I do. I do.

~ Jeff Foster

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Getting enlightened is a great thing. I recommend it. But then what are you going to do? Are you going to love everybody and everything deeply and madly? If not, why bother with enlightenment. ..it would just be a
personal trip. Just go play the lottery...or take a lot of vacations...

~ Scott Kiloby

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Not knowing

I may not know my original face
but I know how to smile.
I may not know the recipe for the diameter of a circle
but I know how to cut a slice for a friend.
I may not be Mary or the Buddha
but I can be kind.
I may not be a diamond cutter
but I still long for rays of light
that reach the heart.
I may not be standing on the hill of skulls
but I know love when I see it.

~ Stephen Levine

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"...did any of your students ever become enlightened? "
"Sure. many of them"
"How can you tell?"
"Easy. They stop following me or anyone else, do not talk ceaselessly about 'teachers', 'teachings', 'spirituality' and other such matters, and they go on with their lives free from fears and pretenses.

~ Nasrudin

Thanksgiving Prayer

GREETINGS TO THE NATURAL WORLD!

Today we have gathered and we see that the cycles of life continue. We have been given the duty to live in balance and harmony with each other and all living things. So now, we bring our minds together as one as we give greetings and thanks to each other as People.

Now our minds are one.

We are all thankful to our Mother, the Earth, for she gives us all that we need for life. She supports our feet as we walk about upon her. It gives us joy that she continues to care for us as she has from the beginning of time. To our Mother, we send greetings and thanks.

Now our minds are one.

We give thanks to all the Waters of the world for quenching our thirst and providing us with strength. Water is life. We know its power in many forms - waterfalls and rain, mists and streams, rivers and oceans. With one mind, we send greetings and thanks to the spirit of water.

Now our minds are one.

We turn our minds to all the Fish life in the water. They were instructed to cleanse and purify the water. They also give themselves to us as food. We are grateful that we can still find pure water. So, we turn now to the Fish and send our greetings and thanks.

Now our minds are one.

Now we turn toward the vast fields of Plant life. As far as the eye can see, the Plants grow, working many wonders. They sustain many life forms. With our minds gathered together, we give thanks and look forward to seeing Plant life for many generations to come.

Now our minds are one.

With one mind, we turn to honor and thank all the Food Plants we harvest from the garden. Since the beginning of time, the grains, vegetables, beans and berries have helped the people survive. Many other living things draw strength from them too. We gather all the Plant Foods together as one and send them a greeting and thanks.

Now our minds are one.

Now we turn to all the Medicine herbs of the world. From the beginning, they were instructed to take away sickness. They are always waiting and ready to heal us. We are happy there are still among us those special few who remember how to use these plants for healing. With one mind, we send greetings and thanks to the Medicines and to the keepers of the Medicines.

Now our minds are one.

We gather our minds together to send greetings and thanks to all the Animal life in the world. They have many things to teach us as people. We see them near our homes and in the deep forests. We are glad they are still here and we hope that it will always be so.

Now our minds are one.

We now turn our thoughts to the Trees. The Earth has many families of Trees who have their own instructions and uses. Some provide us with shelter and shade, others with fruit, beauty and other useful things. Many peoples of the world use a Tree as a symbol of peace and strength. With one mind, we greet and thank the Tree life.

Now our minds are one.

We put our minds together as one and thank all the Birds who move and fly about over our heads. The Creator gave them beautiful songs. Each day they remind us to enjoy and appreciate life. The Eagle was chosen to be their leader. To all the Birds - from the smallest to the largest - we send our joyful greetings and thanks.

Now our minds are one.

We are all thankful to the powers we know as the Four Winds. We hear their voices in the moving air as they refresh us and purify the air we breathe. They help to bring the change of seasons. From the four directions they come, bringing us messages and giving us strength. With one mind, we send our greetings and thanks to the Four Winds.

Now our minds are one.

Now we turn to the west where our Grandfathers, the Thunder Beings, live. With lightning and thundering voices, they bring with them the water that renews life. We bring our minds together as one to send greetings and thanks to our Grandfathers, the Thunderers.

Now our minds are one.

We now send greetings and thanks to our eldest Brother, the Sun. Each day without fail he travels the sky from east to west, bringing the light of a new day. He is the source of all the fires of life. With one mind, we send greetings and thanks to our Brother, the Sun.

Now our minds are one.

We put our minds together and give thanks to our oldest grandmother, the Moon, who lights the night-time sky. She is the leader of women all over the world, and she governs the movement of the ocean tides. By her changing face we measure time, and it is the Moon who watches over the arrival of children here on Earth. With one mind, we send greetings and thanks to our Grandmother, the Moon.

Now our minds are one.

We give thanks to the Stars who are spread across the sky like jewelry. We see them in the night, helping the Moon to light the darkness and bringing dew to the gardens and growing things. When we travel at night, they guide us home. With our minds gathered together as one, we send greetings and thanks to all the Stars.

Now our minds are one.

We gather our minds to greet and thank the enlightened Teachers who have come to help throughout the ages. When we forget how to live in harmony, they remind us of the way we were instructed to live as people. With one mind, we send greetings and thanks to these caring Teachers.

Now our minds are one.

Now we turn our thoughts to the Creator, or Great Spirit, and send greetings and thanks for the gifts of Creation. Everything we need to live a good life is here on this Mother Earth. For all the love that is still around us, we gather our minds together as one and send our choicest words of greetings and thanks to the Creator.

Now our minds are one.

We have now arrived at the place where we end our words. Of all the things we have named, it was not our intention to leave anything out. If something was forgotten, we leave it to each individual to send such greetings and thanks in their own way.

Now our minds are one.


~ A Haudenosaunee "Thanksgiving" Prayer
http://www.firstpeople.us/html/A-Haudenosaunee-Thanksgiving-Prayer.html