Being

What action remains to be done by that great yogi whose mind has been extinguished, and who rests in his own true and transcendent state of Being?

('Upadesa Saram', v. 15)

Upnishad

Just as a mirror shines bright once it has been cleaned of dust,
so those who have seen the Self shine in mind and body.
They are always and forever filled with happiness.
Only by knowing the Self does on become immortal.
There is no other path.

~ Shvetashvatara Upanishad : 2.14

Thought world Self

"One's own thoughts is one's world. What a person thinks is what he becomes- that is the eternal mystery. If the mind dwells within the supreme Self, one enjoys undying happiness."

~ Maitraiyi Upnishad.

Forty verses on reality

Forty Verses on Reality

Invocatory

i. If Reality did not exist, could there be any knowledge of existence? Free from all thoughts, Reality abides in the Heart, the Source of all thoughts. It is, therefore, called the Heart. How then is one to contemplate it? To be as it is in the Heart, is Its contemplation.

ii. Those who know intense fear of death seek refuge only at the feet of the Lord Who has neither death nor birth. Dead to themselves and their possessions, can the thought of death occur to them again? Deathless are they.

 

Verses

1. From our perception of the world there follows acceptance of a unique First Principle possessing various powers. Pictures of name and form, the person who sees, the screen on which he sees, and the light by which he sees: he himself is all of these.

2. All religions postulate the three fundamentals, the world, the soul, and God, but it is only the one Reality that manifests Itself as these three. One can say, ‘The three are really three’ only so long as the ego lasts. Therefore, to inhere in one’s own Being, where the ‘I’, or ego, is dead, is the perfect State.

3. ‘The world is real.’ ‘No, it, is a mere illusory appearance.’ ‘The world is conscious.’ ‘No.’ ‘The world is happiness.’ ‘No.’ What use is it to argue thus? That State is agreeable to all, wherein, having given up the objective outlook, one knows one’s Self and loses all notions either of unity or duality, of oneself and the ego.

4. If one has form oneself, the world and God also will appear to have form, but if one is formless, who is it that sees those forms, and how? Without the eye can any object be seen? The seeing Self is the Eye, and that Eye is the Eye of Infinity.

5. The body is a form composed of the five-fold sheath; therefore, all the five sheaths are implied in the term, body. Apart from the body does the world exist? Has anyone seen the world without the body?

6. The world is nothing more than an embodiment of the objects perceived by the five sense-organs. Since, through these five sense-organs, a single mind perceives the world, the world is nothing but the mind. Apart from the mind can there be a world?

7. Although the world and knowledge thereof rise and set together it is by knowledge alone that the world is made apparent. That Perfection wherein the world and knowledge thereof rise and set, and which shines without rising and setting, is alone the Reality.

8. Under whatever name and form one may worship the Absolute Reality, it is only a means for realizing It without name and form. That alone is true realization, wherein one knows oneself in relation to that Reality, attains peace and realizes one’s identity with it.

9. The duality of subject and object and trinity of seer, sight, and seen can exist only if supported by the One. If one turns inward in search of that One Reality they fall away. Those who see this are those who see Wisdom. They are never in doubt.

10. Ordinary knowledge is always accompanied by ignorance, and ignorance by knowledge; the only true Knowledge is that by which one knows the Self through enquiring whose is the knowledge and ignorance.

11. Is it not, rather, ignorance to know all else without knowing oneself, the knower? As soon as one knows the Self, which is the substratum of knowledge and ignorance, knowledge and ignorance perish.

12. That alone is true Knowledge which is neither knowledge nor ignorance. What is known is not true Knowledge. Since the Self shines with nothing else to know or to make known, It alone is Knowledge. It is not a void.

13. The Self, which is Knowledge, is the only Reality. Knowledge of multiplicity is false knowledge. This false knowledge, which is really ignorance, cannot exist apart from the Self, which is Knowledge-Reality. The variety of gold ornaments is unreal, since none of them can exist without the gold of which they are all made.

14. If the first person, I, exists, then the second and third persons, you and he, will also exist. By enquiring into the nature of the I, the I perishes. With it ‘you’ and ‘he’ also perish. The resultant state, which shines as Absolute Being, is one’s own natural state, the Self.

15. Only with reference to the present can the past and the future exist. They too, while current, are the present. To try to determine the nature of the past and the future while ignoring the present is like trying to count without the unit.

16. Apart, from us where is time and where is space? If we are bodies, we are involved in time and space, but are we? We are one and identical now, then, and forever, here, and everywhere. Therefore we, timeless, and spaceless Being, alone are.

17. To those who have not realized the Self, as well as to those who have, the word ‘I’ refers to the body, but with this difference, that for those who have not realized, the ‘I’ is confined to the body whereas for those who have realized the Self within the body the ‘I’ shines as the limitless Self.

18. To those who have not realized (the Self) as well as to those who have the world is real. But to those who have not realized, Truth is adapted to the measure of the world, whereas to those that have, Truth shines as the Formless Perfection, and as the Substratum of the world. This is all the difference between them.

19. Only those who have no knowledge of the Source of destiny and free-will dispute as to which of them prevails. They that know the Self as the one Source of destiny and free-will are free from both. Will they again get entangled in them?

20. He who sees God without seeing the Self sees only a mental image. They say that he who sees the Self sees God. He who, having completely lost the ego, sees the Self, has found God, because the Self does not exist apart from God.

21. What is the Truth of the scriptures which declare that if one sees the Self one sees God? How can one see one’s Self? If, since one is a single being, one cannot see one’s Self, how can one see God? Only by becoming a prey to Him.

22. The Divine gives light to the mind and shines within it. Except by turning the mind inward and fixing it in the Divine, there is no other way to know Him through the mind.

23. The body does not say ‘I’. No one will argue that even in deep sleep the ‘I’ ceases to exist. Once the ‘I’ emerges, all else emerges. With a keen mind enquire whence this ‘I’ emerges.

24. This inert body does not say ‘I’. Reality-Consciousness does not emerge. Between the two, and limited to the measure of the body, something emerges as ‘I’. It is this that is known as Chit-jada-granthi (the knot between the Conscious and the inert), and also as bondage, soul, subtle-body, ego, samsara, mind, and so forth.

25. It. comes into being equipped with a form, and as long as it retains a form it endures. Having a form, it feeds and grows big. But if you investigate it this evil spirit, which has no form of its own, relinquishes its grip on form and takes to flight.

26. If the ego is, everything else also is. If the ego is not, nothing else is. Indeed, the ego is all. Therefore the enquiry as to what this ego is, is the only way of giving up everything.

27. The State of non-emergence of ‘I’ is the state of being THAT. Without questing for that State of the non-emergence of ‘I’ and attaining It, how can one accomplish one’s own extinction, from which the ‘I’ does not revive? Without that attainment how is it possible to abide in one’s true State, where one is THAT?

28. Just as a man would dive in order to get something that had fallen into the water, so one should dive into oneself, with a keen one-pointed mind, controlling speech and breath, and find the place whence the ‘I’ originates.

29. The only enquiry leading to Self-realization is seeking the Source of the ‘I’ with in-turned mind and without uttering the word ‘I’. Meditation on ‘I am not this; I am That’ may be an aid to the enquiry but it cannot be the enquiry.

30. If one enquires ‘Who am I?’ within the mind, the individual ‘I’ falls down abashed as soon as one reaches the Heart and immediately Reality manifests itself spontaneously as ‘I-I’. Although it reveals itself as ‘I’, it is not the ego but the Perfect Being, the Absolute Self.

31. For Him who is immersed in the bliss of the Self, arising from the extinction of the ego, what remains to be accomplished? He is not aware of anything (as) other than the Self. Who can apprehend his State?

32. Although the scriptures proclaim ‘Thou art That’, it is only a sign of weakness of mind to meditate ‘I am That, not this’, because you are eternally That. What has to be done is to investigate what one really is and remain That.

33. It is ridiculous to say either ‘I have not realized the Self’ or ‘I have realized the Self’; are there two selves, for one to be the object of the other’s realization? It is a truth within the experience of everyone that there is only one Self.

34. It is due to illusion born of ignorance that men fail to recognize That which is always and for everybody the inherent Reality dwelling in its natural Heart-centre and to abide in it, and that instead they argue that it exists or does not exist, that it has form or has not form, or is non-dual or dual.

35. To seek and abide in the Reality that is always attained, is the only Attainment. All other attainments (siddhis) are such as are acquired in dreams. Can they appear real to someone who has woken up from sleep? Can they that are established in the Reality and are free from maya, be deluded by them?

36. Only if the thought ‘I am the body’ occurs will the meditation ‘I am not this, I am That’, help one to abide as That. Why should we for ever be thinking, ‘I am That’? Is it necessary for man to go on thinking ‘I am a man’? Are we not always That?

37. The contention, ‘Dualism during practice, non-dualism on Attainment’, is also false. While one is anxiously searching, as well as when one has found one’s Self, who else is one but the tenth man?1

38. As long as a man is the doer, he also reaps the fruit of his deeds, but, as soon as he realizes the Self through enquiry as to who is the doer his sense of being the doer falls away and the triple karma2 is ended. This is the state of eternal Liberation.

39. Only so long as one considers oneself bound, do thoughts of bondage and Liberation continue. When one enquires who is bound the Self is realized, eternally attained, and eternally free. When thought of bondage comes to an end, can thought of Liberation survive?

40. If it is said, that Liberation is of three kinds, with form or without form or with and without form, then let me tell you that the extinction of three forms of Liberation is the only true Liberation.

Desire

ST JOHN OF THE CROSS
(1542-1591)

To reach satisfaction in all
Desire satisfaction in nothing,

To come to the knowledge of all
Desire the knowledge of nothing.

To come to possess all
Desire the possession of nothing.

To arrive at being all
Desire to be nothing.

To come to the pleasure you have not
You must go by a way in which you enjoy not.

To come to the knowledge you have not
You must go by a way in which you know not.

To come to the possession you have not
You must go by a way in which you possess not.

To come to be what you are not
You must go by a way in which you are not.

When you turn toward something
You cease to cast yourself upon the all.
For to go from the all to the all
You must deny yourself of all in all.

And when you come to the possession of the all,
you must possess it without wanting anything.

In this nakedness the spirit finds its rest,
for when it covets nothing,
nothing raises it up and nothing weighs it down,
because it stands in the centre of its humility.

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" ... a day comes when you have amassed enough and must begin to build. Then sorting out and discarding are absolutely necessary. Everything must be scrutinized and the unnecessary ruthlessly destroyed. Believe me, there cannot be too much destruction. For in reality nothing is of value. Be passionately dispassionate -- that is all."
- Nisargadatta Maharaj, I AM THAT

Self

For him who is the Bliss of Self arising from extinction of the ego, what is there to do? He knows nothing other than this Self. How to conceive the nature of his state?

('Reality in Forty Verses', v. 31 ("Collected Works"))

Bhagwan

BHAGAVAN HAD NO INCLINATION TO WRITE

“Somehow it never occurs to me to write any book or compose poems. All the songs I have made were made at the request of someone or other in connection with some particular event. Even the Reality in Forty Verses, of which so many commentaries and translations now exist, was not planned as a book but consists of verses composed at different times and afterwards arranged as a book by Muruganar and others.

The only poems that came to me spontaneously and compelled me, as it were, to compose them, without anyone urging me to do so, are the Eight Verses to Arunachala and the Eleven Verses to Arunachala. The first day the opening words of the Eleven Verses suddenly came to me one morning, and even if I tried to suppress them, saying, ‘What have I to do with these words?’ they would not be suppressed till I composed a song beginning with them, and all the words flowed easily without any effort...."

-Day by Day

Being

Ramana says: "There cannot be a break in your being. You who slept are also now
awake. There is no unhappiness in your deep sleep whereas it exists now. What is it that has happened now so that this difference is experienced ? There was no `I'-thought in your sleep, whereas it is present now. The true `I' is not apparent and the false `I' is parading itself. This false `I' is the obstacle to your right knowledge. Find out from where this false `I' arises. Then it will disappear. You will then be only what you are, that is, absolute being."

Mooji

Master Mooji Says:  "Actually, being what you are is the simplest. What is difficult is to stop being what you are not."

Moksha

* * * Moksha (Liberation) * * *

A few days ago, a lady, a recent arrival,
came into the hall at about 3 p.m. and sat down.
All the time she was there,
she was trying to get up and ask something of Sri Bhagavan.

As Bhagavan appeared not to have noticed her,
and was reading a book,
she waited for a while.

As soon as Bhagavan put the book aside,
she got up,
approached the sofa and
said without any fear or hesitation,
“Swami,
I have only one desire.
May I tell you what it is?”

“Yes,” said Bhagavan, “What do you want?”

“I want moksha,” she said.

“Oh, is that so?” remarked Bhagavan.

“Yes, Swamiji,
I do not want anything else.
Is it enough if you give me moksha,” said she.

Suppressing a smile that had almost escaped his lips,
Bhagavan said, “Yes, yes,
that is all right;
that is good.”

“It will not do if you say that you will give it sometime later.
You must give it to me here and now,” she said.

“It is all right,” said Bhagavan.

“Will you give it now? I must be going,” said she.

Bhagavan nodded.

As soon as she left the hall,
Bhagavan burst out laughing and said,
turning towards us,

“She says that it is enough
if only moksha is given to her.
She does not want anything else.”

Subbalakshmamma, who was seated by my side,
took up the thread of the conversation and
quietly said,
“We have come and are staying here for the same purpose.
We do not want anything more.
It is enough if you give us moksha.”

“If you renounce,
and give up everything,
what remains is only moksha.
What is there for others to give you?
It is there always.
That is,” said Bhagavan.

“We do not know all that.
Bhagavan himself must give us moksha.”

So saying she left the hall.
Looking at the attendants who were by his side,

Bhagavan remarked,
“I should give them moksha, they say.
It is enough if moksha alone is given to them.
Is not that itself a desire?
If you give up all the desires that you have,
what remains is only moksha.
And you require sadhana to get rid of all those desires.”

The same bhava (idea) is found in Maharatnamala:

It is said that the complete destruction of vasanas is
Brahmam and moksha.

~ Letters from Sri Ramanasramam, 8th January, 1946

Spiritual quotes

"One's own thoughts is one's world. What a person thinks is what he becomes- that is the eternal mystery. If the mind dwells within the supreme Self, one enjoys undying happiness."

~ Maitraiyi Upnishad.
=========

Your duty is to be and not to be this or that .I  am that I am sum up the whole truth. The method to summed up in the word Be still . What does stillness means . It means destroy Your self I .. because any form or shape is cause of trouble .Give up the notion that I am so and so. #Ramana say
=========
"There is a power in the universe working for enlightenment and liberation. We call it Sadashiva, who is ever present in the hearts of men. It is the unifying factor. Unity - liberates. Freedom - unites. Ultimately nothing is mine or yours - everything is ours. Just be one with yourself and you will be one with all, at home in the entire universe."

~ Nisargadatt Maharaj, "I Am That" - chapter 89
=======
"When one’s self [ego] arises all arises; when one’s self becomes quiescent all becomes quiescent. To the extent we behave with humility, to that extent there will result good. If the mind is rendered quiescent, one may live anywhere."

(From 'Who Am I?', Q. 14)

Truth

Your Ultimate Truth is just like sky. Through which you are talking, through which you are listening, through which you are watching, through which you are doing all the activities, that Ultimate truth, that Invisible Truth, that Anonymous Truth, is shapeless there is no form. That is just like sky. Sky is everywhere. Sky does not have any knowledge of it's existence or know 'I am sky'. So there's no body at all. Where is the body? After leaving body, which body remains? We are guessing because we have read so many books. After reading so many books, after listening from various sources, we are creating some so-called spiritual concepts. We created a viscous circle and within that circle we are trying to fix ourself. 'I am somebody else. Conscious, Subconscious body', not at all. It is just for understanding, You are not body at all, You are not body, You were not body, just see.

Sri Ramakant Maharaj

Mind

Papaji Says:  "You have to simply become aware of the movement of the mind, which begins this endless trouble."
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.papajidaily

Emptiness

Nothing does everything better than something.
I say this because we have a fear that
‘If I am empty of me as a person, how can I live?
I have rent to pay. I have children to look after.
If I am empty, how I can do these things?’
But you merely think it is you who is doing all these things.
This is a very difficult thing to convey to the immature mind
because the mind won't accept these words.
The Supreme Being is doing everything.
Through all the bodies it is doing all this as the vital force.
But also the personal mind has an influence.
Now you must judge whether the influence of the mind,
if the involvement or so called help of the personal mind,
is needed by the Absolute.

~ Mooji

Eight verses to Arunachala Shiva

Eight Stanzas to Sri Arunachala

1. Look, there it stands as if insentient. Mysterious is the way it works, beyond all human understanding. From my unthinking childhood, the immensity of Arunachala had shone in my awareness. But even when I learnt from someone that it was only Tiruvannamalai, I did not realize its meaning. When it stilled my mind and drew me to itself and I came near, I saw that it was stillness absolute.

2. Enquiring within “Who is the seer?” I saw the seer disappearing and That alone which stands for ever. No thought arose to say “I saw”. How then could the thought arise to say “I did not see?” Who has the power to explain all this in words, when even You (as Dakshinamurti) conveyed this of yore in silence only? And in order to reveal by silence, Your state transcendent, now You stand here, a Hill resplendent soaring to the sky.

3. When I approach You thinking You have form, You stand here as a Hill on earth. If one regarding You as formless wants yet to see You, he is like one wandering through the world to have a look at the ether (ubiquitous, invisible). Meditating without thought on Your formless Being, my form (my separate entity) dissolves like a sugar-doll in the sea. And when I realize who I am, what being have I apart from You, O, You who stand as the mighty Aruna Hill?

4. To search for God ignoring You who stand as Being and shine as Awareness is like looking, lamp in hand, for darkness. In order to reveal Yourself atlast as Being and Awareness, You dwell in various forms in all religions. If still there are people who fail to see You whose Being is Awareness, they are no better than the blind who do not know the Sun. O mighty mountain Aruna, peerless Jewel, stand and shine, One without a second, the Self within my Heart.

5. Like the string that holds together the gems, in a necklace, You it is that penetrate and bind all beings and the various religions. If, like a gem that is cut and polished, the separate mind is whetted on the grindstone of the pure, universal Mind, it will acquire the light of your Grace and shine like a ruby whose brightness is not flawed by any other object.When once the light of the Sun has fallen on a sensitive plate, will the plateregister another picture? Apart from you, O Aruna Mountain bright, auspicious does any other thing exist?

6. You alone exist, O Heart, the radiance of Awareness. In You a power mysterious dwells, a power which without You is nothing. From it (this power of manifestation) there proceeds, along with a perceiver, a series of subtle shadowy thoughts which, lit by the reflected light of mind amid the whirl of prarabdha, appear within as a shadowy spectacle of the world and appear without as the world perceived by the five senses as a film is projected through a lens. Whether perceived or unperceived, these (thoughts) are nothing apart from you, O Hill of Grace.

7. Until there is the I thought there can be no other thought. When other thoughts arise, ask “To whom? To me? Where does this ‘I’ arise?” Thus diving inwards, if one traces the source of the mind and reaches the Heart, one becomes the Sovereign Lord of the Universe. There is no more dreaming of such as in and out, right and wrong, birth and death, pleasure and pain, light and darkness, O boundless ocean of Grace and Light, Arunachala dancing the dance of stillness in the dancing Hall of the Heart.

8.The raindrops showered down by the clouds, risen from the sea cannot rest until they reach, despite all hindrance, once again their ocean home. The embodied soul from You proceeding may through various ways self-chosen wander aimless for a while, but cannot rest till it rejoins You, the source. A bird may hover here and there and cannot in mid-heaven stay. It must come back the way it went to find at last on earth alone its resting place. Even so the soul must turn to You O, Aruna Hill, and merge again in You alone, Ocean of bliss.