Quotes

Spirituality quotes

Quotes

Quotes

Spirituality and science

Be here & now  : papa ji
space =time  : swami vivekanand

Self

ANNAMALAI SWAMI REMEMBERED

After a few months in Palakottu I noticed that my mind was beginning to get quieter and quieter. During my working days my mind had been constantly occupied with thoughts about building matters. The mind would continue its incessant activities even after the end of each day’s work. Plans, problems, and theoretical solutions to problems, would continue to fill my mind long after the actual work was over. I found it very hard to meditate under such circumstances.

   Bhagavan had told me, ‘You are not the body, you are not the mind. You are the pure consciousness, the Self. You are all-pervasive. Be aware of this at all times, even while you are working.’
  I tried very hard to put this upadesa into practice while I was working, but I cannot say that I had much of a success.

  When I moved to Palakottu I found it far easier to practice Bhagavan’s teachings. My mind became much quieter and even my body began to change. While I had been working in Ramanasramam there had always been a lot of heat in my body. Working with lime had made the body feel very hot and I compounded the problem by spending a large part of each day out in the sun.

After a few months of meditation in Palakottu my mind became relatively quiet and still and a wonderful coolness pervaded my body. In the course of time, after many years of practice, both of these conditions became permanent.

- LWB

Even mindedness

Learn to laugh at difficulties by remembering that you are immortal: "Killed many times, I yet live, born many times, I am yet changeless." Whether you are suffering in this life, or smiling with opulence and power, your consciousness should remain unchanged. If you can accomplish evenmindedness, nothing can ever hurt you. The lives of all great masters show that they have achieved this blessed state.

Paramahansa Yogananda

Reality

We should not be frightened by nightmares of pain nor unduly elated by dreams of beautiful experiences. By dwelling on these inevitable dualities or "pairs of opposites" of maya, the cosmic delusion of incessant change, we lose the awareness of God, the Changeless Abode of Bliss. When we awaken in Him we shall realize that mortal life is only a picture made of shadows and light, cast on a cosmic movie screen. You are not here to become mixed up with the movies and cry when there is a tragedy or smile when there is comedy. You should know that you are watching movies of life and death but that you are apart from them. You must get away from the hypnotizing dance of the senses. You must wake up. You must not waste time. Soon the show will be over, and where will you be then?

~ Paramahansa Yogananda

Happiness

LIFE CAN GIVE YOU NO HAPPINESS

MAHARSHI:  The truth about happiness and suffering, which has been correctly determined by the wise, is this:  outwardness of the mind is suffering; its inwardness is happiness.

RAMESH:  The knowledge of Truth comes about when dispassion arises in a man after he has learned from personal experience that whatever life provides is truly hollow.  The man of the world becomes the man of wisdom through recognizing that non-attachment is liberation whereas the passion for sensory objects and experience is bondage.

     Pursuit of pleasure and pursuit of happiness are totally different.  It is a physical sense that seeks pleasure. It is the heart that seeks happiness.  Not pursuing pleasure, not wanting continuity of pleasure, is the happiness the human being seeks.

WAYNE:  Desires that arise in the human mind and body are in themselves transient and benign.  It is involvement by the False Sense of Authorship that converts a desire into suffering.  When the False Sense of Authorship is finally dissolved desires can no longer lead to suffering.

from​-​ CALM IS GREATER THAN JOY by Shirish Kumar S. Murthy. p89​, Zen Publications (2010) ​,https://advaita.3dcartstores.com/CALM-IS-GREATER-THAN-JOY-by-Shirish-Kumar-S-Murthy_p_434.html

advaita.org

I am that

Understand first that you are not the person you believe yourself to be. What you think yourself to be is mere suggestion or imagination. You have no parents, you were not born, nor will you die. Either trust me when I tell you so, or arrive to it by study and investigation. The way of total faith is quick, the other is slow but steady. Both must be tested in action. Act on what you think is true -- this is the way to truth.
~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
...from 'I Am That', chapter 79
https://www.facebook.com/Nondualism

Reality

There is no greater mystery than this - viz., ourselves being the Reality we seek to gain Reality. We think that there is something hiding our Reality and rather it must be destroyed before the Reality is gained. It is ridiculous. A day will dawn when you will yourself laugh at your past efforts. That which will be on the day you laugh is also here and now.

(Bhagavan in 'Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi' 146)

Be still

CONVERSATIONS WITH ANNAMALAI SWAMI

Question: Bhagavan often told devotees to "Be still". Did he mean "Be mentally still"?

Annamalai Swami: Bhagavan's famous instruction "summa iru" [be still] is often misunderstood. It does not mean that you should be physically still; it means that you should always abide in the Self.

If there is too much physical stillness, tamoguna [a state of mental torpor] arises and predominates. In that state you will feel very sleepy and mentally dull. Rajoguna [a state of excessive mental activity], on the other hand, produces emotions and a mind which is restless.

In sattva guna [a state of mental quietness and clarity] there is stillness and harmony. If mental activity is necessary while one is in sattva guna it takes place. But for the rest of the time there is stillness. When tamoguna and rajoguna predominate, the Self cannot be felt.

If sattva guna predominates one experiences peace, bliss, clarity and an absence of wandering thoughts.

That is the stillness that Bhagavan was prescribing.

- LWB

I am lover of reality

“I AM A LOVER OF REALITY”

"It’s insane to believe that suffering is caused by anything outside the mind. A clear mind doesn’t suffer. That’s not possible.

Even if you’re in great physical pain, even if your beloved child dies, even if you and your family are herded off to Auschwitz, you can’t suffer unless you believe an untrue thought. I’m a lover of reality.

I love what is, whatever it looks like. And however it comes to me, my arms are open. This is not to say that people shouldn’t suffer.

They should suffer, because they do. If you’re feeling sad or afraid or anxious or depressed, that’s what you should be feeling. To think otherwise is to argue with reality. But when you’re feeling sad, for example, just notice that your sadness is the effect of believing a prior thought."

- Byron Katie

Self knowledge

Of what avail is knowing things
Other than the Self? And the Self being known,
What other thing is there to know?
That one light that shines as many selves,
Seeing this Self within
As Awareness’ lightning flash;
The play of Grace; the ego’s death;
The blossoming of bliss.

['Self-Knowledge' ('Atma-Vidya'), Verse 4]

Life of sage

Q: What should be the life-style of an "enlightened" person in todays world?

A: In reality, nothing changes when 'someone' becomes enlightened - before there was the non-dual brahman, after there is the non-dual brahman. From the standpoint of the relative world, what has happened is that self-knowledge has arisen in the mind of the now-enlightened person so that he or she now knows that everything is brahman. From the standpoint of another person, it will outwardly appear that nothing has happened, except that the enlightened person's behavior is likely to change. I say 'likely' because the extent to which this happens is somewhat dependent upon the mental preparation that this person underwent prior to the enlightenment. Such things as mental eqanimity are likely to increase post-enlightenment. The person's behavior to others is likely to be different - more sympathetic, loving etc. - because it is now known that these 'others' are in fact one's own Self. Desires etc. are likely still to arise but whether these are satsified or not will no longer be important. And so on... The person's working, social life etc. may well continue as before, since there is no reason to try to change anything when all is known to be perfect (and changeless) in reality but then again, it may not. E.g. perhaps the person had a natural inclination to teach, which had been supressed and, since there are now no ambitions etc., he may give up his materialistic lifestyle and devote it to others. Who knows?

http://www.advaita.org.uk/discourses/q_and_a/q_and_a8.htm

Vice virtue

Sri Ramakrishna: Did you have any conversation with Bhaskarananda?

Manilal: Yes sir, we talked for a long time. Among other things we discussed vice and virtue. He said: Don't tread the path of sin. Don't even think of evil. This is what the Lord requires of you. Perform only actions which bring you merit.

Sri Ramakrishna: Yes, that is true as far as worldly people are concerned. But it is different for those who are illumined, who have realized that the Lord is the only reality and all else is unreal and ephemeral. They know that the Lord alone does everything and that we are all non-doers. They who are illumined never take a wrong step, they don't have to calculate before eschewing sin. They have so much love for the Lord that all their actions are exemplary. But they know that they are not the doers of their actions, they know that they are only the servants of the Lord - that they are only the machines while the Lord is the operator of the machine. They know that what they are doing is by His will, that what they speak is what He makes them speak, that they move the way He makes them move.

~ Source: 'Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita' (Volume II, Section III, Chapter I) ☞ http://www.kathamrita.org/KathamritaMain.htm

Desire

Papaji Says:  "There is a never-ending cycle of birth and death. What is birth and what is death? They are desire. This never-ending cycle is fueled by desire, the desire to enjoy sense objects in a body. When desire ceases, this cycle also ceases. This apparently endless cycle of birth and death ends with the cessation of desire. It is not only birth and death that end. When desire ceases, the universe itself ceases. It is as if it never existed. That's how it is."
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.papajidaily

Pleasure

When pleasure becomes the dominant interest
Posted:
All over the world human beings are degenerating to a greater or lesser extent. When pleasure, personal or collective, becomes the dominant interest in life—the pleasure of sex, the pleasure of asserting one’s own will, the pleasure of excitement, the pleasure of self-interest, the pleasure of power and status, the insistent demand to have one’s own pleasure fulfilled—there is degeneration. When human relationships become casual, based on pleasure, there is degeneration. When responsibility has lost its total meaning, when there is no care for another, or for the earth and the things of the sea, this disregard of heaven and earth is another form of degeneration. When there is hypocrisy in high places, when there is dishonesty in commerce, when lies are part of everyday speech, when there is the tyranny of the few, when only things predominate—there is the betrayal of all life. Then killing becomes the only language of life. When love is taken as pleasure, then man cuts himself off from beauty and the sacredness of life. - Krishnamurti, Letters to the Schools vol I, p 83

Self

He who gives himself up to the Self that is God is the most excellent devotee. Giving one’s self up to God means remaining constantly in the Self without giving room for the rise of any thoughts other than that of the Self. Whatever burdens are thrown on God, He bears them. Since the supreme power of God makes all things move, why should we, without submitting ourselves to it, constantly worry ourselves with thoughts as to what should be done and how, and what should not be done and how not? We know that the train carries all loads, so after getting on it why should we carry our small luggage on our head to our discomfort, instead of putting it down in the train and feeling at ease?
(Bhagavan's reply to 'Who Am I?', Q. 18: 'f the devotees, who is the greatest?')

Reality

"Let the world bother about its reality or falsehood. Find out first about your own reality. Then all things will become clear."

(Bhagavan in "Day by Day," 28-12-45 Afternoon (See below.))
_______________________________________
Question 3 (D.): I do not understand the meaning of “'brahma satyam jagat mithya' (Brahman is real, the world is unreal)”. Does this world have real existence or not? Does the jnani not see the world or does he see it in a different form?

Answer (M.): Let the world bother about its reality or falsehood. Find out first about your own reality. Then all things will become clear. What do you care how the jnani sees the world? You realise yourself and then you will understand. The jnani sees that the world of names and forms does not limit the Self, and that the Self is beyond them.

(From "Day by Day," 28-12-45 Afternoon)