I went to Quaker meeting for worship today on Easter Sunday. We sit in silence for an hour, and if anyone is moved to speak they do so. The idea is that it is the Silence that speaks, not the ego, Silence being that ever-present Presence, also known as God (or whatever other word you want to use).
‘Not by reading do you get the truth. Be quiet, that is truth. Be still, that is God.’
from Face to Face with Sri Ramana Maharshi, ch. 100
I have often become repeatedly frustrated with spiritual seeking, wondering which spiritual teaching is best, which practice to do, and what is the absolute truth. There are so many flavours of spirituality and non-duality on offer that I have often found myself confused. And at the end of so many years of seeking, what do I really know? Despite having read some of the most profound texts from many of the great ancient traditions and contemporary teachers, I often feel that I still have no clue. And in many ways I don’t really have a clue. But what I keep on remembering is that there is no-self. And with that remembering of that phrase can come a clear seeing that there is no person here. Continue reading
“The Tao that can be spoken is not the eternal Tao” Tao te ching, verse 1
We don’t need to take spiritual concepts too seriously. They are there to guide us, to point us in the right direction only. The reality they point to cannot be described. When we start to take teachings too seriously we miss this point and start to become dogmatic.
“Any interpretations that are set up and established as truth become meaningless phrases” Bankei
I’ve met people who follow Advaita Vedanta who say that consciousness is what we really are, and others who say what we are is beyond consciousness. Both of these are useful teachings, but don’t take them too seriously, either one of them. Both are useful and untrue. If you take a single position as being true, then that is a belief. Your attachment to a conceptual truth indicates the belief in ego/individuality that underlies it. Continue reading
Question: There are a number of spiritual teachers teaching various paths. Whom should one take for one’s Guru?
Sri Ramana Maharshi: Choose that one where you find you get shanti (peace).
From Day by Day with Bhagavan p.169
Instructions from the Supreme Source
‘Listen! As all self-liberates there is no need to correct the body posture or to visualise a deity. There is no need to correct the voice or speech. There is no need to correct the mind through meditation. By correcting oneself, it is not possible to find the authentic condition, and without finding the authentic condition, one cannot self-liberate’
Chapter 29, p. 166
Many spiritual teachings tell us to look within. This is an antidote-type teaching, meaning it is there to correct a wrong view. If you are looking outwardly for lasting fulfilment in worldly or material things (objects outside of oneself), a teaching that says ‘look within’ can counteract the outgoing tendency.
So briefly, why does looking outwardly for lasting fulfilment not work? Because the world will never give rise to lasting satisfaction as everything is the world is changing. Whatever you can gain or obtain can also be taken away from you or lost. Even while you have it you may be anxious about losing it, such is the nature of the world and the objects that seemingly lie within it. Hence the instruction to look within for the deepest treasure: Continue reading
Ahh, the Ribhu Gita. Its words are uncompromising: they leap off the page, smack you in the mouth and leave you speechless (and thoughtless). At first glance the ideas it unfolds are preposterous. But this text is not meant for the mind. It is meant for the heart, it is speaking directly to that Truth that we already are and always have been. Continue reading
In my previous post I introduced this book which contains arguably the most important text in Dzogchen, the Kunjed Gyalpo, with Dzogchen itself considered by many to be the height of Buddhist teachings. If true, this would mean that this text is the ‘creme-de-la-creme’ of spiritual instruction.
For me the text is sublime and poignant and complete. Whilst I think many other teachings are just as ‘high’, reading it makes my heart open and sing, and I offer you some extracts, with my thoughts interspersed with the aim of highlighting important aspects of Dzogchen teachings.
‘The aim of Dzogchen is the reawakening of the individual to the primordial state of enlightenment which is naturally found in all beings’
Thus states the first line on the back-cover of this treasure-trove of a book. This book is a comprehensive book on Dzogchen, which some say is the highest teaching of Tibetan Buddhism, and is based upon the translation of one of the most ancient and perhaps most important Dzogchen texts, the Kunjed Gyalpo.
Tom Das 