Not trying to get somewhere,
Not clinging,
Not letting go,
Not renunciating,
Not ‘staying in the moment’,
Not ‘being present’,
(This is just more trying to get somewhere,
more clinging),
Just this.
Love
Sufi mystic Abol-Hasan speaks
Here are some gems from Sheikh Abol-Hasan, a Sufi mystic from the 11th century AD. His words continue to astound me. I have followed each quote with my commentary in italics and hope this does not detract from the quotes themselves.
One may speak of those absent,
but one who is Ever Present,
one can say nothing of
Sheikh Abol-Hasan, saying 92
How can we speak of Him? How can we talk of Him? All talk of Him is fanciful, all the more so if we take our descriptions and theories about Him seriously. Continue reading
Blasphemy
All exist in me
Confusion, anger,
love and life –
All exist in me.
How to connect with anyone
Try this powerful experiment, with a loved one, a friend, a stranger…
“Studies say that 4 minutes of uninterrupted eye contact can increase intimacy. To test this this theory out, we brought in six pairs in different stages of their relationship and had them try it.”
So, how did you get on?
The way beyond effort and effortlessness
In the mind made clear by practice,
(naturally resting,
empty of thought,
self-shining and luminous,
effortlessly present)
a phrase uttered can reveal the transcendent,
as can a gesture, glance, object or experience. Continue reading
It is here!
Don’t try to figure it out,
The mind will never get this.
My mind still hasn’t got it,
Yet I am.
There is nothing to find here.
No matter how hard you look
You can never find it.
Ahh! It is here!
Bulldozer spirituality
To verbally espouse and preach spiritual things can be deeply inappropriate:
Do you tell someone who is suicidal,
That their problems are due to a false notion of self?
Or that all phenomena are insubstantial, formless and everchanging?
Or that like the desert mirage, life and its problems are a dream?
It would be like telling someone who is choking that ‘ALL IS ONE‘. 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
Tom Das 