Nothing I say can explain to you Divine Love
Yet all of creation cannot seem to stop talking about it.
~ Rumi
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Love is seeing
the unity
under
the imaginary
diversity.
~ Nisargadatta
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The whole idea of compassion is based on a keen awareness of the interdependence of all these living beings, which are all part of one another, and all involved in one another.
So instead of loving what you think is peace, love other [people] and love God above all. And instead of hating the people you think are warmongers, hate the appetites and the disorder in your own soul, which are the causes of war. If you love peace, then hate injustice, hate tyranny, hate greed – but hate these things in yourself, not in another.
~ Thomas Merton
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Don't look for peace. Don't look for any other state than the one you are in now; otherwise, you will set up inner conflict and unconscious resistance.
Forgive yourself for not being at peace. The moment you completely accept your non-peace, your non-peace becomes transmuted into peace. Anything you accept fully will get you there, will take you into peace. This is the miracle of surrender.
When you accept what is, every moment is the best moment. That is enlightenment.
~ Eckhart Tolle
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The truth is that a whole new state of consciousness already exists, that every part of your experience that’s unfolding right now is already enclosed within absolute stillness, absolute ease. And so there really isn’t
anywhere to go or anything for which to search. Struggle only gets us deeper into the very thing we’re trying to escape. This is a very important thing to know about egoic consciousness: The harder we try to get out, the deeper we dig ourselves in.
~ Adyashanti
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We try to grasp something strange and mysterious because we believe happiness lies elsewhere. This is the mistake. The Self is all-pervading. Our real nature is liberation, but we imagine that we are bound, we make strenuous efforts to become free, although all the while we are free. Birth and death pertain only to the body, they are superimposed upon the Self, giving rise to the delusion that birth and death relate to the Self. The universe exists within the Self. Discover the undying Self and be immortal and happy. Be yourself and nothing more. Thoughts change but not you. There is neither past nor future; there is only the present. Yesterday was the present when you experienced it; tomorrow will also be the present when you experience it, therefore, experience takes place only in the present, and even the present is mere imagination, for the sense of time is purely mental.
All that is required to realize the Self is to be still. What can be easier than that? Your true nature is that of infinite spirit.
~ Ramana Maharshi
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Enlighten your desires.
Meditate on who you are.
Quit imagining.
What you want is profoundly expensive,
and difficult to find,
yet closeby.
Don't search for it. It is nothing,
and a nothing within nothing.
~ Lalla - 14th Century North Indian mystic
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The Ineffable Mystery of Being
What I have discovered through my spiritual practice is an increasing self-intimacy. ..a sense of authenticity and real-ness, that has become the cornerstone of my daily life. I cannot imagine how I could have lived without this living presence and sense of emerging fullness.
Our awareness is incredibly powerful at enabling the unveiling of ourselves, revealing a fuller picture, illuminating our experience, but only if we are willing and committed to knowing the fullness of what we are.
I find as I continue noticing and encountering this awareness in my life what comes into view is both particular and vast, discordant yet harmonious, life sustaining yet challenging and not necessarily easy. This active engagement demands my courage and honesty, this is no walk in the park.
As I continue, the sense of congruence and authenticity begins to sprout and this self-intimacy becomes the rule, in time. Although it is not as though there is one mode of being, that of self-intimacy, no, it is more like that a dance has begun.
This dance, fueled and enabled by the openness and desire of wanting to know myself, is both exhilarating and liberating and, as I develop trust in the unfolding, I soon begin to recognize that any ideas or desires for Awakening need not concern me....it no longer is of interest as my life has filled up with a delicious fragrance of authenticity.
I no longer care for anything other than supporting what has taken root within me…if the self concept or ego continues I don't care, the teachers and teachings tell me this and that and I don't care, life is its usual mix of struggle and strife, joy and love, and I no longer care...why would I care when I know the golden key is within? Why search for anything when the very fabric of experience is the path of unfolding. Everyday experience reveals this once we get a little more familiar with ourselves and stop trying to awaken, stop meddling with our experience long enough to notice what is.
At some stage there was a key realization, one among many, when I realized I can let go of all concepts about the teaching and just feel comfortable in everyday experience without any framework or concepts about how it ought to be. Is their a doer? Is there an ego? Is there an awakening? Are we perfect? None of these conceptual frames of reference are important. Instead I relax and notice that all that stuff is just ideas about...about the ineffable mystery of being.
~ Rob Matthews