When things are seen for what they are,
it can be seen there is no doer:
there is just what’s happening
happening.
Suffering tends
to drastically lessen
as old ideologies fall away. Continue reading
There is no you
You have never done a thing.
Why?
Because you do not exist.
You did not chose your gender (at birth),
the colour of your eyes, Continue reading
The end of seeking
To realise that there is no point to the spiritual search is the end of seeking spiritual experiences.
This absence of seeking is itself the fulfillment we were looking for.
Here there is no enlightenment. This is the enlightenment.
An apparent paradox.
Now things are seen for what they are: a mysterious unfolding of events, thoughts, feelings, desires and happenings.
All seamless,
Ever-changing and therefore without form,
And without a doer.
Just what is.
Spirituality is not physics
Spirituality is not physics. Lots of people who are interested and immersed in spirituality get confused about this. Just because something feels/ is perceived/ is intuited a certain way, does not mean that it is actually like that. It’s obvious really. Spirituality deals with subjective experience. Science deals with learning how to predict what will occur in various different situations. Some examples:
eg. I have a feeling/perception that all is one and everything is interconnected. Therefore everything in the universe is actually one and interconnected.
Spirituality and science have common aims
It just so happens that in the so-called ‘West’ there has been a rapid development of science in the last few centuries. If we want to understand how things work, if we want to develop technologies and medicine, we turn to ‘Western’ science.
Also, it just so happens that when it comes to introspection and exploration of subjective inner states of consciousness, the so-called ‘East’ has had the historical monopoly. There have been a few thousand years of rigorous exploration of consciousness through meditative, contemplative, tantric and various other practices. This has allowed humans to discover and access mental states in which truths about our minds and subjective experience can be discovered and experienced first-hand without the need for belief. Continue reading
Alan Watts: You and the universe are one
“It’s not true that you came into this world. You came out of it, in the same way a flower comes out of a plant or a fruit comes out of a tree. An apple tree apples, the solar system peoples…You are a function of this total galaxy”
Alan Watts
Nisargadatta Maharaj: If my real self is peace and love, why is it so restless?
Questioner: If my real self is peace and love, why is it so restless?
Nisargadatta Mahara: It is not your real being that is restless, but its reflection in the mind appears restless because the mind is restless. It is just like the reflection of the moon in the water stirred by the wind. The wind of desire stirs the mind and the ‘me’, which is but a reflection of the Self in the mind, appears changeful. But these ideas of movement, of restlessness, of pleasure and pain are all in the mind. The Self stands beyond the mind, aware, but unconcerned.
Continue reading
Beyond self-realisation
No sadhanas are required
No sadhana (spiritual practice) can lead to self realisation. No map can take you to where you already are, and no practice can transform you into that which you always have been.
All sadhanas such as meditation, mindfulness, mantra, puja, selfless service and devotion – all sadhanas are for the illusory individual. They are an extension of greed/egotism. It is this web of illusion, all hinged upon the idea of being a person with a body and mind, that prevents the obvious from being ‘seen’. Continue reading
Ramana Maharshi: How to get peace
Questioner: …how to get peace?
Ramana Maharshi: As I said already, that which is, is peace. All that we need do is to keep quiet.
Peace is our real nature. We spoil it. What is required is that we cease to spoil it. We are not going to create peace anew. There is space in a hall, for instance. We fill up the place with various articles. If we want space, all that we need do is to remove all those articles, and we get space.
Similarly if we remove all the rubbish, all the thoughts, from our minds, the peace will become manifest. That which is obstructing the peace has to be removed. Peace is the only reality.
Excerpt taken from Day by Day with Bhagavan
Do ‘greater works’ than Jesus
“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.”
John 14:12
People often argue away this one, but it seems clear to me, especially in the context of John 14 and the other Gospels, that Jesus is saying if you follow his teachings, then you will do greater things than Jesus.
Jesus often claimed in John’s Gospel that he did nothing by himself and that it was the Father in him that did everything. Jesus’s constant message to humanity was to turn away from the world and towards God, realise that God is Love, to love one another, to see the Kingdom of Heaven is within, and to surrender to God’s will. Not the worst teachings in the world, eh?
Tom Das 