8/26/2016

Grace

CONSCIOUS IMMORTALITY

Grace is within you; if it were external it would be useless.Grace is the Self; you are never out of its reach. If you remember the guru, it is because you have been prompted by the Self.
Isn't grace already there? Is there a moment when grace is not operating in you?

Your remembrance of the guru is the fore­
runner of grace, Grace is both the response and the stimulus. That is the Self and that is grace. There is no cause for anxiety.

Q: But isn't a guru's grace or God's grace necessary for one' s progress with vichara?

M: Yes, but the enquiry that you are making is itself guru's grace or God's grace.

p. 149

Sadness

SADNESS IS NOT NATURAL

Sadness is always a sign that you're believing a stressful
thought that isn't true for you. It's a constriction, and it feels bad.

Conventional wisdom says differently, but the truth is that sadness isn't rational, it isn't a natural response, and it can't ever help you. It just indicates the loss of reality, the loss of the awareness of love.

Sadness is the war with what IS. It's a tantrum. You can experience it only when you're arguing with God. When the mind is clear, there isn't any sadness. There can't be.

What does compassion look like? At a funeral, just eat the cake. You don't have to know what to do. It's revealed to you.
Someone comes into your arms, and the kind words speak
themselves; you're not doing it. Compassion isn't a doing.

Whether or not you're suffering over their suffering, you're standing or you're sitting. But one way you're comfortable, the other way you're not.

You don’t have to feel bad to act kindly. On the contrary:
the less you suffer the kinder you naturally become. And if compassion means wanting others to be free of suffering, how can you want for others what you won’t give yourself?

- Byron Katie, A Thousand Names for Joy

I am here

I am here to meet you, but not superficially.
The invitation is for a much deeper meeting.
The true meeting is where you yourself, as a person, disappear.
It happens often, naturally, but you don’t remember.
Even throughout a single day it occurs;
when you are without self-reference,
when you are in the pure state, the natural, primal mind
—but not being conscious of it.

The opportunity here is to wake up,
to be free from the influence of the psychological mind,
free from the confusion or doubt as to your true nature.
And not merely as an intellectual conviction!
Awakening is a good term for this,
because then you will see that we have been sleeping.
Eyes wide open, limbs moving, mouth speaking, mind thinking
—but still sleeping, and not aware of your true nature.

How rare it is in the human kingdom
that beings are aware of that silence,
that space that is unmoving, that does not age,
it does not grow, it doesn’t expand or contract,
and yet everything that moves, that appears or disappears,
take their birth from Here.

Your calling is to discover this consciously, powerfully.
Only then will you be able to face the storms
that come from the body-mind identity,
and the psychological noise that comes from personhood.
You will see through all of these things.
They will not overwhelm you anymore.
I want to remind you that it is possible to be free of such states.

It is not difficult to awaken to the True.
What seems difficult is to overcome the reflex
to go back into the old regime of identity
—that will happen for a time.
The tendency to want to protect our projections and attachments
will in fact create this feeling of separation
and will slow you down.

But don’t despair!
All of this is going somewhere very beautiful.
And where is that? To You. Right Here.
Sitting inside the heart of your own Being.
The drive, the natural evolution of conscious beings,
is to return to the Source.
Not out-out-out, but in-in-in…
there is no other place for you to be proven than Here.

I present to you a powerful invitation,
a powerful claim which I hope you will fulfill
by coming to that recognition irrefutably for yourself.
Recognise the divinity behind the façade of the person.
I wonder if you are up for it.

For once you should take this invitation personally.
It is for You. Come with that attitude. Just to be open.
You are not being asked to create the Self.
It is not about creativity or imagination.
Even a blind man can see what is being pointed to here,
for it is beyond the realm of names and forms.
Don’t think you know your limits.
It is better to have a sense that you are unlimited
than that you are limited and knowable.
Keep your doors open.
Not for who may come in, but for who may come out.

~ Mooji

Mind feeling

Q: How does one eliminate feelings, thoughts, grief, fear, cravings, and addictions while meditating? Are positive affirmations useful for this?

Adyashanti: Stop trying to eliminate anything. It is the belief that a thing needs to be eliminated that maintains its existence. Be an open space for whatever arises. When everything is allowed to arise, you have the opportunity to perceive that which does not arise or subside. You are That. Positive affirmations are fine for the mind only. Leave the mind to the mind. You are not this mind. Stop trying to rearrange your mind and discover what lies before it. You are the consciousness that contains the mind. Ask yourself this question, before the mind, body, and emotions: Who am I? Meditate on that. Seek the seeker.

...from "The Impact of Awakening"

Depressed

A lady was depressed and troubled because she could not meditate. Bhagavan pointed out that the Self is more immediate than any state and that she was creating unnecessary worries:

"Each question of yours is prompted by a thought.
Your nature is Peace and Happiness. Thoughts are the obstacles to realization.

One’s meditation or concentration is meant to get rid of obstacles and not to gain the Self. Does anyone remain apart from the Self? No!

The true nature of the Self is declared to be Peace. If the same peace is not found, the non-finding is only a thought which is alien to the Self. One practices meditation only to get rid of these alien fancies.

So, then, a thought must be quelled as soon as it rises. Whenever a thought arises, do not be carried away by it. You become aware of the body when you forget the Self. But can you forget the Self? "

Talks no 462