We don’t have to define reality
We don’t even need to see things as they are.
We don’t need to do anything.
Just this.
That’s it.
Naturally,
We already see things as they are,
Effortlessly,
It’s our natural intelligence,
(It’s not ‘ours’)
And wrong concepts are naturally dropped,
(Or maybe they are not).
Reality shines through all of this.
How could it not?
Questioner: Is your world full of things and people as is mine?
Nisargadatta Maharaj: No, it is full of myself.
Questioner: But do you see and hear as we do?
Jnaneshvar (1275–1296), also known as Jnanadev is widely acclaimed as a great self-realised master and teacher whose poetry and writings have influenced many generations after him. He was part of the Nath tradition, an ancient lineage of spiritual masters, which has become recently famous in the West due to Nisargadatta Maharaj (1897-1981), a more recent initiate in the Nath tradition.
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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.
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Questioner: When I look into myself, I find my strongest desire is to create a monument, to build something which will outlast me. Even when I think of a home, wife and child, it is because it is a lasting, solid, testimony to myself. Continue reading
Questioner: As a child fairly often I experienced states of complete happiness, verging on ecstasy: later, they ceased, but since I came to India they reappeared, particularly after I met you. Yet these states, however wonderful, are not lasting. They come and go and there is no knowing when they will come back.
Nisargadatta Maharaj: How can anything be steady in a mind which itself is not steady?
Q: How can I make my mind steady?
M: How can an unsteady mind make itself steady? Of course it cannot. It is the nature of the mind to roam about. All you can do is to shift the focus of consciousness beyond the mind.
Q: How is it done?
M: Refuse all thoughts except one: the thought ‘I am’. The mind will rebel in the beginning, but with patience and perseverance it will yield and keep quiet. Once you are quiet, things will begin to happen spontaneously and quite naturally without any interference on your part.
Q: Can I avoid this protracted battle with my mind?
M: Yes, you can. Just live your life as it comes, but alertly, watchfully, allowing everything to happen as it happens, doing the natural things the natural way, suffering, rejoicing — as life brings. This also is a way.
Q: Well, then I can as well marry, have children, run a business… be happy.
M: Sure. You may or may not be happy, take it in your stride.
Q: Yet I want happiness.
M: True happiness cannot be found in things that change and pass away. Pleasure and pain alternate inexorably. Happiness comes from the self and can be found in the self only. Find your real self (swarupa) and all else will come with it.
The above excerpt is from I Am That by Nisargadatta Maharaj
Tom’s comments:
There are so many gems in just this short passage! First Maharaj points out the mind need not be directly controlled and that the very nature of the mind is to roam, ruminate and be unsteady. Instead focus on something else: the sense ‘I AM’. Then the goal of a quiet mind will naturally arise.
Maharaj then gives us more: if we are not drawn to this sadhana (spiritual practice), then we can try an alternative. Instead we can surrender to whatever happens, keeping a watchfulness about ourselves whilst we do so. This, rather like the ‘I AM’ sadhana, also has the effect of quietening the mind and prevents the ego having room to manoevure. The ‘I’ which is always trying to meddle in things is cut off, restricted. There is much more to how these methods work and how they can be practised – I have written an article here explaining more on this.
Lastly Maharaj gives us a final nugget: ‘True happiness cannot be found in things that change and pass away.’
Experience, knowledge, insight and consciousness all come and go – so where does this leave us? Where can we seek if we do not seek in this world of impermanent things? Here we pass from the domain of the mind to that which is beyond words. Call it ‘true self’ (swarupa) or ‘no-self’, words do not apply.
The following is an excerpt from ‘Selfless Self: Talks with Shri Ramakant Maharaj‘, page 15. To find out more, click on the hyperlinks above.
YOU ARE ALMIGHTY. ALMIGHTY GOD, OMNIPRESENT.
YOUR PRESENCE IS EVERYWHERE.
YOU ARE BEYOND THE SKY
THERE IS NO INDIVIDUALITY.
Questioner: [laughing] I find it hard to believe that this ‘little me’ is all of that! If I am all of that, as you say, how is it I am not aware of this? And if I’m not, then how can I start becoming aware of my Self?
Maharaj: How can I? There is no ‘I’ at all. There is no ‘You’ and there is no ‘I’. Everything is just like the sky. You see, even when the Master tells you that you are Almightly, that you are Ultimate Truth, you are not accepting it. You are not able to accept that Truth because you’re caught up in all sorts of illusionary thoughts. You are considering yourself as ‘little me’, and that is making you blind to your Innate Power.
The remedy for this, a very simple remedy for this, as I have said, is meditation. Meditation is the anti-virus for illusion.
Tom Das 