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
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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)