post 14

quote

Just before waking up from sleep, there is a very brief state, free from thought. 

That should be made permanent.

In dreamless sleep there is no world, no ego and no unhappiness, but the Self remains.

In the waking state there are all of these. 

Yet there is the Self. 

One has only to remove the transitory happenings in order to realize the ever-present beatitude of the Self.

Your nature is bliss. Find that on which all the rest are imposed and you then remain as the pure Self.

In sleep there is no space or time. They are concepts, which arise after the ‘I-thought’ has arisen. You are beyond time and space. The ‘I-thought’ is the limited ‘I’. The real ‘I’ 

is unlimited, universal, beyond time and space. 

Just while rising from sleep and before seeing the objective world, there is a state of awareness which is your Pure Self. That must be known.

- Sri Ramana Maharishi.  Gems.

God

One cannot see God and yet retain individuality. The seer and the seen unite into one Being. There is no cogniser, nor cognition, nor the cognised. All merge into One Supreme Siva only!

(Talk 450)

post 13

It is good to proceed towards Him. Pray that you may be liberated from your shackles. Sit daily in contemplation of the One. He is the Life of your life, the Heart of your heart. To realise God means to realise your Self and to realise your Self is the same to find God. One must become entirely engrossed in sadhana. If you really yearn for God restlessly your yearning will be fulfilled. Try your utmost to find Him. The actual truth is, if you cry out to Him in earnest this prayer will be fulfilled.

- Ma Anandmayi

post 12 Robert

Running away is never the answer. Changing yourself is the answer.

Take a look at your own life and see if it is not true what I'm saying. The changes you've gone through in your life. I know so many people who have left their home and family and gone to India to meditate, to find gurus, teachers. They have come back very depressed, even suicidal. For they've given up everything. Remember, there's nothing you have to give up. Only mentally do you give up attachment.

Always look at the world as a reflection of you. You are the world. The world can be nothing without your approval. It sounds strange, but true. You have to stop identifying conditions apart from yourself. I know it seems hard to do. When you see the riots we've just had, the murders, the looting, it seems really difficult to realize you are one with this. But think about this. Why should you only think you are one with the good things? If you are One, you are One with everything. Never just the good things that you enjoy and you like and bring into your life. 

You are All-Pervading, Omnipresent, and you are One with all there is.

The correct way to observe this is to look at everything in the world intelligently without any comments, without any reactions. Do not be for or against anything. Train yourself to observe, to watch, to look without any reaction. You may start training yourself with the small things. Work on the small things first. As an example, if you go outside and you have a ticket on your car for over-parking, catch yourself reacting to this by not reacting at all. Simply see the situation look at the situation, have no comment, no reaction. Pay the ticket and forget it. Do not think this is good, this is bad, this is outrageous, this is wrong, I don't deserve it. If you didn't deserve it, it wouldn't happen. 

Say you stub your toe. Instead of cursing the chair, getting upset, feel the pain, observe it, watch it, and let it go. Everything that takes place in your life, this is the way you should react. Someone cheats you, and you're thinking of taking them to court to sue them. Think about this carefully. 

Is this what I really want to do? And then your ego will say, of course you do, you were cheated. 

Your business partner cheated you out of $50,000. So you want to take this person to court to sue them. Say you did go to court and you won the case. You think this is good. But something will happen to even it out again. You'll have to go to court again and again and again. 

Sometimes you will win, sometimes you will lose. There are people like that you know. 

I'm thinking of a particular woman right now who makes a habit of going to court at least once a month. She is always suing somebody for something. Sometimes she wins and sometimes she loses, and she's a nervous wreck. She's not a happy woman.

If you begin to understand that everything is in its right place, how can somebody do something to you? No one can hurt you. What is rightfully yours, no one can ever take away. So why worry? Why be upset? It makes life so much easier. You start to worry and you become upset because in your finite mind, in your ego mind, you're thinking, "Well I've been cheated out of $50,000, this is all the money I have. I'm going to go to the poorhouse, I'll become a homeless person," and your mind keeps playing tricks with you. Telling you all the bad things that are going to happen to you. If you can only laugh at yourself and stop thinking of those things, you will find that you have risen higher in consciousness, and you're in control of the situation, and all is well. 

Never allow your mind to play tricks on you, to play games with you, and tell you about all the things that might happen. And then fear comes in and you start running 

around, crying, trying to correct things, trying to make things good, while you keep thinking about all the bad things that are going to happen to you. These things we are talking about are very important, for it keeps you back from thinking of truth and reality. It keeps you back from moksha, from liberation, for you are spending all your time involved in the material world. I'm not saying you should give up thinking about your business, or thinking about your family, or thinking about things in your life. But make them short and sweet. Think a couple of minutes about these things, and 

leave them alone.

- Robert Adams. 

T. 155 @ This Is Your Dharma - May 21, 1992

post 11

What will be your new name after surrender? There is no name besides yours. The Vedas laud you; the world praises you; the essence of religious teachings is yourself. Then what is your form? All forms are yours. There is no form which is not yours. What is installed in the temples of worship is you; what is described in the Vedas is you; festivities and celebrations are all for you. Now what can be your power? In your presence the world is active; each is what it is, because of you. Briefly said, all things glorify you and bear witness to your being. They are duty bound to do so. You would not have even dreamt that this will be your state. Start at once, be not self-conceited. The Universal Ego awaits you. 

Do you wish to wake up from your dream or continue in it? How long will the dream images last? Be not idle, shake off your sleep, wake up! You are witnessing your own mental images and imagining more and more. It is all in vain. Just find out who it is that sees the visions. Do not delude yourself that you are these that rise and sink in you. Wake up. The instant you wake up you will know that waking is better than this dream. Get up! The Universal Ego waits to rejoice at seeing you awake. 

Fear not the cessation of the present ego dream. Once you are awake you will enjoy the same all the more. You will no longer be deluded and will observe it with cheerful detachment, unconfused. The folly of all appearances will be understood and you will have no burdens. In dream your mental imagery assumes shapes. On waking you know the dream as just a dream. Do not mistake dream for the waking state. Know the dream as dream. For doing so, you must reach the state of "I-am-Brahman" (Universal Ego) and wake from the illusion of the ego. 

~ Ellam Ondre (All is One)_ Ch.VI. EGO

post 10

 When attention is directed towards objects and intellect, the mind is aware only of these things. That is our present state. But when we attend to the Self within, we become conscious of It alone.  If the mind wanders, we must at once realise we are not the body and enquire, "Who am I?" and the mind must be brought back to realise the Self. Thus all evils are destroyed and happiness is realised.

Concentration is not thinking of one thing only. Rather, it is the putting off of all other thoughts which obstruct the vision of our true nature. All our efforts are only directed towards lifting the veil of ignorance. Now it appears difficult to quell the thoughts, but in the regenerated state, it will be found more difficult to activate them! Why should we think of these things? There is the Self alone. Thoughts can function only if there are objects – but there are no objects, so how can thoughts arise at all? 

The Self is like a powerful magnet hidden within us. It draws us gradually to Itself, though we imagine we are going to It of our own accord. When we are near enough, It puts an end to our other activities, makes us still, and then swallows up our own personal current, thus killing our personality. It overwhelms the intellect and floods the whole being. We think we are meditating upon It and developing towards It, whereas the truth is that we are like iron-filings and It is the Self-magnet that is pulling us towards Itself. Thus the process of finding Self is a form of divine magnetism.

~ Sri Bhagavan