February 2005
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February 1st 2005
From Consciousness -- Awakening
The timeless non-state cannot be achieved because the mind cannot evolve towards it. The mind can only bring you to the threshold. Awakening comes unexpectedly when you do not wait for it, when you live in not-knowing. Only then are you available.
Jean Klein
Transformation cannot be brought about, it can only happen. Indeed, practicing meditation is itself bondage! Transformation presupposes the total absence of any doer practicing anything.
Ramesh Balsekar
This happened to me, but in that happening nothing was lost because there never was a me to lose, only a confusion to correct that never existed.
Steven Norquist
From Consciousness -- Realisation
If we talk of knowing the Self, there must be two Selves, one a knowing Self, another the Self which is known, and the process of knowing. The state we call realisation is simply being oneself, not knowing anything or becoming anything. If one is realised, he is that which alone is and which alone has always been.
Ramana Maharshi
To me nothing ever happens. There is something changeless, motionless, immovable, rock-like, unassailable; a solid mass of pure being-consciousness-bliss. I am never our of it. Nothing can take me out of it, no torture, no calamity.
Nisargadatta Maharaj
From Consciousness -- Ignorance
No god is a philosopher or seeker after wisdom because he is wise already. Neither do the ignorant seek after wisdom; for herein is the evil of ignorance, that he who is neither good nor wise is nevertheless satisfied with himself.
Socrates
Even a learned man must bow before an illiterate Sage. The illiterate man is simply ignorant; the learned man is learnedly ignorant; the Sage is also ignorant, because there is nothing for him to know.
Ramana Maharshi
The world, filled with attachments and aversions and the rest, is like a dream: it appears to be real as long as one is ignorant, but becomes unreal when one is awake.
Shankara
From Consciousness -- Thinking
Thoughts are not necessarily a distraction. Thoughts are arising in this present awareness and dissolving back into it. The silence remains untouched, unstained, immaculate. Thoughts are only a problem if you are preoccupied with them, giving them all your attention, believing in the entity of "me" around which the thoughts swirl.
Catherine Ingram
Life of man is what it is. That which is, is. All the trouble arises by having a conception of it. Mind comes in. It has a conception. All trouble follows. If you are as you are, without a mind and its conceptions about various things, all will be well with you. If you seek the source of the mind, then all questions will be solved.
Ramana Maharshi
From Consciousness -- Not of the World
You are not of the world, you are not even in the world. The world is not, you alone are. You create the world in your imagination like a dream. As you cannot separate the dream from yourself, so you cannot have an outer world independent of yourself. You are independent, not the world. Don't be afraid of a world you yourself have created.
Nisargadatta Maharaj
You may believe that this whole universe is a dream and all human beings mere dreamed characters within that dream, but so long as you yourself remain outside that dream and view yourself as an individual separate from it, you cannot approach closer to the Truth.
Ramesh Balsekar
From Consciousness -- Consciousness
Am I the body, senses or mind? No. If I claim to be anything, that must be with me wherever I go. Doing, perceiving, thinking and feeling do not go with me wherever I go. 'Knowing' alone is always with me.
So I am knowingness of Consciousness alone. I am that always, and I am free. I can only be that which remains over when the object or active part is separated from the perceiver, perception or percept.
Atmananda Krishna Menon
Consciousness is not aware of the universe, Consciousness is aware as the universe. When I say consciousness is aware as the universe, I mean the very act of existence is consciousness.
Steven Norquist
From Consciousness -- A One Man Show
Human beings actually have no more independence or autonomy in living their lives than do the characters in a dream. Neither do they have anything to do with the creation of the dream or anything in it.
They are simply being lived along with everything else in this living dream of the manifested universe. The entire dream is unreal. Only the dreamer is real, and that is Consciousness itself.
Ramesh Balsekar
Consciousness has produced this play. Consciousness has written the script. Consciousness is playing all the characters. And Consciousness is witnessing the play. It's a one man show.
Ramesh Balsekar
From Consciousness -- Without Any Form
In reality only the Ultimate is. The rest is a matter of name and form. And as long as you cling to the idea that only what has a name and shape exists, the Supreme will appear to you non-existing.
When you understand that names and shapes are hollow shells without any content whatsoever, and what is real is nameless and shapeless, pure energy of life and light of consciousness, you will be at peace -- immersed in the deep silence of reality.
Nisargadatta Maharaj
I am without any change, without any form, free from all blemish and decay. I am not subject to any disease, I am beyond all comprehension, free from all alternatives and all-pervading. I am without any attribute or activity. I am eternal, ever free and imperishable. I am free from all impurity, I am immovable, unlimited, holy, undecaying and immortal.
Shankara
From Consciousness -- Right and Wrong
Relatively, what causes suffering is wrong; what alleviates it is right. Absolutely, what brings you back to reality is right, and what dims reality is wrong.
Nisargadatta Maharaj
All responsibility and guilt are imaginary concepts based upon the mistaken notion that a sentient being has independent existence, autonomy and choice of action.
Ramesh Balsekar
Be aware, the one who stands still, in his stillness finds God. The man who runs after God never attains to him because the running is of the mind, and that highest spiritual element can never be obtained by the mind.
Osho
From Consciousness -- As Inside - So Outside
Whatever you want, be it..
If you want connection, it's because you are connection.Be what you want, and then it happens all around you.
If you want love, be it. You'll have more love than you know what to do with.
Whatever you are inside, you receive a thousandfold on the outside.
Adyashanti (Stephen Gray)
From Consciousness -- Reality
All Upanishadic methods try to eliminate you from the Anatma and to establish you in the Atma. But here according to the direct method you are shown that you can never get away either from your own shadow or from your reality.
You are only asked to look deep into what you call Anatma, and see beyond the shadow of a doubt that it is nothing but Atma the Reality.
Atmananda Krishna Menon
That (Atman) moves, That does not move; That is far off, That is very near; That is inside all this, and That is also outside all this.
Isavasya Upanishad
It (Brahman) is known to him to whom It is unknown; he does not know to whom It is known. It is unknown to those who know well, and known to those who do not know.
Kena Upanishad
From Consciousness -- Faith
Faith, no doubt, is a great and mighty ally to the seeker; but blind faith, born from fear and thriving in ignorance is a chain of slavery.
Swami Chinmayananda
Every time you look into the face of fear, it disappears but if you keep looking to the shadow, it grows and grows.
Satyananda
Study of the scriptures is fruitless as long as Brahman has not been experienced. And when Brahman has been experienced, it is useless to read the scriptures.
Shankara
From Consciousness -- Seeking
To go beyond the mind, you must be silent and quiet. Peace and silence, silence and peace -- this is the way beyond. Stop asking questions.
Nisargadatta Maharaj
Seekers continue to practice all kinds of self-torture without realizing that such 'spiritual practice' is a reinforcement of the very ego that prevents them from their natural, free state.
Ramesh Balsekar
If you feel that you're not That, that's a thought. If you didn't have that thought where would you be? If you didn't have the thought that you are not realized, where would you be? What would your state be?
Ramana Maharshi
From Consciousness -- Endocrine Cocktails
You may choose, now, to fixate and obsess on motive and memory, fantasy, and commentary, with their associated rivers of emotions, some of them perhaps very powerful.
You may be continually preoccupied, even addicted, to the endocrine cocktails they produce. You may imagine that whole process to be the past, or the future, even the present.
You may imagine that to be your life, or the world. But it's all just the play of memory, nothing more.
It is what you are doing with memory and fantasy, this very moment, nothing more. And sooner or later, you get sick of the monotony, the isolation, the boredom, the self-centered wretchedness of it all. Saniel Bonder
From Consciousness -- Why Hold Back?
To be awake is to be unconditionally open to all that is. It is to be completely without prior opinion or assumption about anything.
To stay awake is to surrender, totally, to unedited and unrestricted awareness, to abandon the pretense of both past and future.
There is nowhere else to go. Why not just be here, with tenderness, generosity, and compassion? Why not simply rest in the eternal magic of uncompromising attention and affection?
Why not fall unguardedly in love with the endless peace into which all things are born, your very own Self? We are all the very Same One. Why hold back? Saniel Bonder
From Consciousness -- The Classic Spiritual Mistake
The correct attitude toward the teaching negates the illusion of the me instantly.
It's only when you think the teaching is coming from something other than your own Self, that it creates further separation.
If you think the teaching is something other than a reflection of what you already know to be true in your heart, then it creates the illusion of me, the seeker.
Adyashanti (Stephen Gray)
If you accept that all (form) is an illusion without including yourself, you have made the classic spiritual mistake.
Gary Harmon
From Consciousness -- Transformed by the Freedom
Having a profound awakening can be like taking the lid off of a jar. All the karma that has been repressed, all the karma at the bottom of our misery that we aren't conscious of, comes flying out because there is finally space in which it can emerge.
When it hits you in the face, you wonder where your Freedom went and what went wrong. But understand that this is a consequence of the Freedom; it is not a mistake.
Everything wants to come up into and be transformed by the Freedom. If you let it come up into this Aware Space, which is Love, it will re-harmonize.
This Space that you are is unconditional Love. Unconditional means just that: everything is welcome; nothing is cast away or set apart from it.
Adyashanti (Stephen Gray)
From Consciousness -- Resting in the Unknown
Don't look to the mind. Don't think; just be. Be still and know your Self.
Before the movement of mind lies emptiness. Emptiness is the gateway of Heart Wisdom: the spontaneous, intuitive intelligence, which originates from the Self.
The mechanism of self-evaluation is what distorts the perception of truth. Knowingness of the truth arises from a silent mind, a mind that is not evaluating and struggling to know.
The perception arises from resting in the Unknown, in not knowing. If you come to rest in not knowing, you will immediately know.
Adyashanti (Stephen Gray)
From Consciousness -- Be in Your Being
You must rest in not knowing with curiosity. Even though you rest in not knowing, you still need to remain curious.
You still want to know, but you no longer struggle to know. Just observe and stay sensitive to the movement of knowingness within.
Knowingness is experienced in your being as aliveness. It is not in your mind.
Listen from the neck down. Be in your being, and you will come to feel what I am speaking of within yourself.
Adyashanti (Stephen Gray)
From Consciousness -- Everything is One
As long as the me is trying to contain the non-personal view of oneness, it's always going to feel crushed by it. The non-personal view is going to be too big for it; of course, that's the whole point.
The revelation of oneness crushes the me when it's seen absolutely clearly, when it's seen that I am the One. There is a big difference between perceiving oneness and perceiving that I am that One.
Once you truly start to live in the revelation that I am the One, the embodiment of that revelation in and through the human being and human personality begins to happen.
If the mind clings to separation, then that individual is going to find himself suffering far, far more than he did before he knew that everything is one.
Adyashanti (Stephen Gray)
From Consciousness -- Life, Undivided and Whole.
The question should not be "How to integrate?" It should be "Who is the integrator?" Once you go beyond the integrator, there is no longer the perception of a duality that needs to be integrated.
Integration is between two. There is no such distinction between everyday life and spirituality. Integration means that you are still holding onto the false distinctions of the mind.
Cling neither to spiritual states nor mundane states. You are the stateless state. All is included within, and is, an expression of your Self.
Throw out the concept of "spiritual" and throw out the concept of "everyday life." There is only Life, undivided and whole.
Adyashanti (Stephen Gray)
From Consciousness -- Beyond All Dualities
Let your inner spiritual revelation become deep enough to include the whole world of time and space.
If your spiritual revelation is only big enough to go beyond the relative world but not include it, then you will continue to experience a duality and therefore a struggle with the relative world.
Do not become attached to the realm of the absolute. See the absolute and the relative as an undivided whole, as two expressions of the same supreme reality that you are.
Go beyond all dualities to the source of duality, to that which is neither this nor that but expresses itself as this and that.
Adyashanti (Stephen Gray)
From Consciousness -- Finding Your Innermost Strength.
The pain-body doesn't want you to observe it directly and see it for what it is.
The moment you observe the pain-body, feel its energy field within you, and take your attention into it, the identification is broken.
A higher dimension of consciousness has come in. I call it presence. You are now the witness or the watcher of the pain-body.
This means that it cannot use you anymore by pretending to be you, and it can no longer replenish itself through you. You have found your own innermost strength.
Eckhart Tolle
From Consciousness -- Various Pain-Bodies
Some pain-bodies are obnoxious but relatively harmless, for example, like a child who won't stop whining. Others are vicious and destructive monsters, true demons.
Some are physically violent; many more are emotionally violent. Some will attack people around you or close to you, while others may attack you, their host.
Thoughts and feelings you have about your life then become deeply negative and self-destructive. Illnesses and accidents are often created in this way. Some pain-bodies drive .their hosts to suicide.
When you thought you knew a person and then you are suddenly confronted with this alien, nasty creature for the first time, you are in for quite a shock. It is more important, however, to observe it in yourself than in someone else.
Eckhart Tolle
From Consciousness -- The Awakening Pain-Body
Watch out for any sign of unhappiness in yourself -- it may be the awakening pain-body.
This can take the form of irritation, impatience, a somber mood, a desire to hurt, anger, rage, depression, a need to have some drama in your relationship, and so on. Catch it the moment it awakens from its dormant state.
The pain-body wants to survive, just like every other entity in existence, and it can only survive if it gets you to unconsciously identify with it.
It can then rise up, take you over, "become you," and live through you.
Eckhart Tolle
From Consciousness -- Keeping the Pain Going
The pain-body needs to get its "food" through you. It will feed on any experience that resonates with its own kind of energy, anything that creates further pain in whatever form: anger, destructiveness, hatred, grief, emotional drama, violence, and even illness.
So the pain-body, when it has taken you over, will create a situation in your life that reflects back its own energy frequency for it to feed on. Pain can only feed on pain. Pain cannot feed on joy. It finds it quite indigestible.
Once the pain-body has taken you over, you want more pain. You become a victim or a perpetrator. You want to inflict pain, or you want to suffer pain, or both. There isn't really much difference between the two.
You are not conscious of this, of course, and will vehemently claim that you do not want pain. But look closely and you will find that your thinking and behavior are designed to keep the pain going, for yourself and others.
If you were truly conscious of it, the pattern would dissolve, for to want more pain is insanity, and nobody is consciously insane.
Eckhart Tolle
From Consciousness -- An Insubstantial Phantom
The pain-body, which is the dark shadow cast by the ego, is actually afraid of the light of your consciousness. It is afraid of being found out.
Its survival depends on your unconscious identification with it, as well as on your unconscious fear of facing the pain that lives in you.
But if you don't face it, if you don't bring the light of your consciousness into the pain, you will be forced to relive it again and again.
The pain-body may seem to you like a dangerous monster that you cannot bear to look at, but I assure you that it is an insubstantial phantom that cannot prevail against the power of your presence.
Eckhart Tolle
From Consciousness -- Watch the Pain-Body Directly
When you become the watcher and start to disidentify, the pain-body will continue to operate for a while and will try to trick you into identifying with it again.
Although you are no longer energizing it through your identification, it has a certain momentum, just like a spinning wheel that will keep turning for a while even when it is no longer being propelled.
At this stage, it may also create physical aches and pains in different parts of the body, but they won't last.
Stay present, stay conscious. Be the ever- alert guardian of your inner space. You need to be present enough to be able to watch the pain-body directly and feel its energy. It then cannot control your thinking.
Eckhart Tolle
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