Small Dosages of Truth and Wisdom

[Pheena]

I'll be posting Random quotes that are full of light, if you feel like adding something feel free to do so. if not Enjoy them as i have.

Waheguru

=========================================

From meditation to observation, from observation to knowledge, from knowledge to freedom—this is the path. This is the path of religion, of yoga. I want you to understand this path and to walk along it. Then you will know the alchemy of the transformation of conduct by inner revolution. Then you will realize that religion, not morality, is the fundamental thing and that morality flows out of religion. It is not morality but religion that is the sadhana to be practiced. Morality follows in the wake of religion like the tracks of the wheels of a bullock-cart follow the cart. If this becomes clear to you, you will see a very great truth, and a great illusion will be dispersed.

I look at the transformation of mankind from the standpoint of this inner revolution, of this penetration of the unconscious by the conscious. On the basis of this knowledge a new man can be brought into being and the foundations of a new culture and a new humanity can be laid. Such a man, one that has been awakened by self-knowledge, is naturally moral. He does not have to cultivate morality. Neither is it the result of his actions nor of his endeavors. It radiates from him as light radiates from a lamp. His good conduct is not based on opposition to his unconscious mind but comes out of the fullness of his inner being. He does everything with his total being. There is neither duality nor multiplicity in him, but unity. Such a man is integrated; such a man is free of duality.

And the divine music one hears when one has gone beyond all conflicts and shackles is neither of this world nor of this space. There is a timeless symphony, a blissful note, that reverberates in us at that moment of peace, innocence and freedom from all discord. The very rhythm of this music brings one in tune with the infinite.

To me, this realization is God.

[Pheena]

In the house, an earthenware lamp has been lit, its flame ascending. The lamp is of the earth, but its flame endlessly mounts to touch the unknown.

Man's consciousness is like this flame. His body is content with the earth but there is something else in him which constantly strives to rise above it. This consciousness, this dancing flame is the life of man. This ceaseless yearning to soar is his soul.

Man is man because he has this flame within him. Without it, he is only earth.

If this flame burns fiercely, a revolution comes into being. If this flame is manifest totally, the earth itself can be transcended.

Man is a lamp. There is earth in him, but there is light too. If he concerns himself only with the earth, his life is wasted: there must be attention to the light also.

Awareness of the light transforms everything and allows man to see God in the earth.

[Pheena]

................"Swamiji, I am puzzled. Following your instruction, suppose I never asked for food, and nobody gives me any. I should starve to death."

"Die then!" This alarming counsel split the air. "Die if you must Mukunda! Never admit that you live by the power of food and not by the power of God! He who has created every form of nourishment, He who has bestowed appetite, will certainly see that His devotee is sustained! Do not imagine that rice maintains you, or that money or men support you! Could they aid if the Lord withdraws your life-breath? They are His indirect instruments merely. Is it by any skill of yours that food digests in your stomach? Use the sword of your discrimination, Mukunda! Cut through the chains of agency and perceive the Single Cause!" ........

[Pheena]

Shakespear is puzzled by the problem "to be or not to be," because he is absolutely unaware that the way to be is not to be. There is no question of choice. It is not that you have to choose one. If you choose to be, you will have to choose not to be. If you are ready to disappear, evaporate, you will find your authenticity for the first time. It is certainly a paradox. No logic can explain it, but experience can make it absolutely clear.

[Pheena]

Enlightenment has nothing to do with poverty, fasting, discipline, religious rituals. There is only a single way to enlightenment and that is creating more and more awareness about your acts, about your thoughts, about your emotions.

[Pheena]

"Guruji, I would like to hear some stories of your childhood."

"I will tell you a few—each one with a moral!" Sri Yukteswar's eyes twinkled with his warning. "My mother once tried to frighten me with an appalling story of a ghost in a dark chamber. I went there immediately, and expressed my disappointment at having missed the ghost. Mother never told me another horror-tale. Moral: Look fear in the face and it will cease to trouble you.

"Another early memory is my wish for an ugly dog belonging to a neighbor. I kept my household in turmoil for weeks to get that dog. My ears were deaf to offers of pets with more prepossessing appearance. Moral: Attachment is blinding; it lends an imaginary halo of attractiveness to the object of desire.

"A third story concerns the plasticity of the youthful mind. I heard my mother remark occasionally: 'A man who accepts a job under anyone is a slave.' That impression became so indelibly fixed that even after my marriage I refused all positions. I met expenses by investing my family endowment in land. Moral: Good and positive suggestions should instruct the sensitive ears of children. Their early ideas long remain sharply etched."

[SAadmin]

Pheena, just wanted to know which guroo ji you are refering to ??? buddhist guroo, hindu guroo? what his name.??

Stories are nice

[Pheena]

veerji, im copying and pasting this from a book of Parmahanse Yoganada, The Autobiography of a Yogi. Plus other stuff i find on the net.

The guru ji in the last few quotes is a hindu guroo, but as i remember you said in our convo yesterday, "No Saint/Murshad is part of any religion"

[SAadmin]

Off course veer "saint/murshad is not part of any relegion". I was asking ya because i dont want readers to get confused with guroo maharaj ji...

[Pheena]

oh ok that makes sense....i guess i should put sources on 'em.

[Pheena]

"The darkness of maya is silently approaching. Let us hie homeward within."

"The body is a treacherous friend. Give it its due; no more," he said. "Pain and pleasure are transitory; endure all dualities with calmness, while trying at the same time to remove their hold. Imagination is the door through which disease as well as healing enters. Disbelieve in the reality of sickness even when you are ill; an unrecognized visitor will flee!"

"Good manners without sincerity are like a beautiful dead lady," he remarked on suitable occasion. "Straightforwardness without civility is like a surgeon's knife, effective but unpleasant. Candor with courtesy is helpful and admirable."

"In sleep, you do not know whether you are a man or a woman," he said. "Just as a man, impersonating a woman, does not become one, so the soul, impersonating both man and woman, has no sex. The soul is the pure, changeless image of God."

Source: Autobiogaphy of a Yogi

[Pheena]

Sri Yukteswar never avoided or blamed women as objects of seduction. Men, he said, were also a temptation to women. I once inquired of my guru why a great ancient saint had called women "the door to hell."

"A girl must have proved very troublesome to his peace of mind in his early life," my guru answered causticly. "Otherwise he would have denounced, not woman, but some imperfection in his own self-control."

If a visitor dared to relate a suggestive story in the hermitage, Master would maintain an unresponsive silence. "Do not allow yourself to be thrashed by the provoking whip of a beautiful face," he told the disciples. "How can sense slaves enjoy the world? Its subtle flavors escape them while they grovel in primal mud. All nice discriminations are lost to the man of elemental lusts."

Source: Autobiogaphy of a Yogi

[Pheena]

One afternoon during my early months at the ashram, found Sri Yukteswar's eyes fixed on me piercingly.

"You are too thin, Mukunda."

His remark struck a sensitive point. That my sunken eyes and emaciated appearance were far from my liking was testified to by rows of tonics in my room at Calcutta. Nothing availed; chronic dyspepsia had pursued me since childhood. My despair reached an occasional zenith when I asked myself if it were worth-while to carry on this life with a body so unsound.

"Medicines have limitations; the creative life-force has none. Believe that: you shall be well and strong."

Sri Yukteswar's words aroused a conviction of personally-applicable truth which no other healer—and I had tried many!—had been able to summon within me.

Day by day, behold! I waxed. Two weeks after Master's hidden blessing, I had accumulated the invigorating weight which eluded me in the past. My persistent stomach ailments vanished with a lifelong permanency. On later occasions I witnessed my guru's instantaneous divine healings of persons suffering from ominous disease—tuberculosis, diabetes, epilepsy, or paralysis. Not one could have been more grateful for his cure than I was at sudden freedom from my cadaverous aspect.

"Years ago, I too was anxious to put on weight," Sri Yukteswar told me. "During convalescence after a severe illness, I visited Lahiri Mahasaya in Benares.

"'Sir, I have been very sick and lost many pounds.'

"'I see, Yukteswar,9 you made yourself unwell, and now you think you are thin.'

"This reply was far from the one I had expected; my guru, however, added encouragingly:

"'Let me see; I am sure you ought to feel better tomorrow.'

"Taking his words as a gesture of secret healing toward my receptive mind, I was not surprised the next morning at a welcome accession of strength. I sought out my master and exclaimed exultingly, 'Sir, I feel much better today.'

"'Indeed! Today you invigorate yourself.'

"'No, master!' I protested. 'It was you who helped me; this is the first time in weeks that I have had any energy.'

"'O yes! Your malady has been quite serious. Your body is frail yet; who can say how it will be tomorrow?'

"The thought of possible return of my weakness brought me a shudder of cold fear. The following morning I could hardly drag myself to Lahiri Mahasaya's home.

"'Sir, I am ailing again.'

"My guru's glance was quizzical. 'So! Once more you indispose yourself.'

"'Gurudeva, I realize now that day by day you have been ridiculing me.' My patience was exhausted. 'I don't understand why you disbelieve my truthful reports.'

"'Really, it has been your thoughts that have made you feel alternately weak and strong.' My master looked at me affectionately. 'You have seen how your health has exactly followed your expectations. Thought is a force, even as electricity or gravitation. The human mind is a spark of the almighty consciousness of God. I could show you that whatever your powerful mind believes very intensely would instantly come to pass.'

Soruce: Autobiogaphy of a Yogi

[Pheena]

"Man in his waking state puts forth innumerable efforts for experiencing sensual pleasures; when the entire group of sensory organs is fatigued, he forgets even the pleasure on hand and goes to sleep in order to enjoy rest in the soul, his own nature," Shankara, the great Vedantist, has written. "Ultra-sensual bliss is thus extremely easy of attainment and is far superior to sense delights which always end in disgust."

[Pheena]

"Just as the purpose of eating is to satisfy hunger, not greed, so the sex instinct is designed for the propagation of the species according to natural law, never for the kindling of insatiable longings," he said. "Destroy wrong desires now; otherwise they will follow you after the astral body is torn from its physical casing. Even when the flesh is weak, the mind should be constantly resistant. If temptation assails you with cruel force, overcome it by impersonal analysis and indomitable will. Every natural passion can be mastered.

"Conserve your powers. Be like the capacious ocean, absorbing within all the tributary rivers of the senses. Small yearnings are openings in the reservoir of your inner peace, permitting healing waters to be wasted in the desert soil of materialism. The forceful activating impulse of wrong desire is the greatest enemy to the happiness of man. Roam in the world as a lion of self-control; see that the frogs of weakness don't kick you around."

[Pheena]

"Sacred writings are beneficial in stimulating desire for inward realization, if one stanza at a time is slowly assimilated. Continual intellectual study results in vanity and the false satisfaction of an undigested knowledge."

"If one busies himself with an outer display of scriptural wealth, what time is left for silent inward diving after the priceless pearls?"

"Wisdom is not assimilated with the eyes, but with the atoms," "When your conviction of a truth is not merely in your brain but in your being, you may diffidently vouch for its meaning."

[vaapaaraa]

This is my fav few paragraphs from the whole book

======

Sri Yukteswar seldom indulged in riddles; I was bewildered. He struck gently on my chest above the heart.

My body became immovably rooted; breath was drawn out of my lungs as if by some huge magnet. Soul and mind instantly lost their physical bondage, and streamed out like a fluid piercing light from my every pore. The flesh was as though dead, yet in my intense awareness I knew that never before had I been fully alive. My sense of identity was no longer narrowly confined to a body, but embraced the circumambient atoms. People on distant streets seemed to be moving gently over my own remote periphery. The roots of plants and trees appeared through a dim transparency of the soil; I discerned the inward flow of their sap.

The whole vicinity lay bare before me. My ordinary frontal vision was now changed to a vast spherical sight, simultaneously all-perceptive. Through the back of my head I saw men strolling far down Rai Ghat Road, and noticed also a white cow who was leisurely approaching. When she reached the space in front of the open ashram gate, I observed her with my two physical eyes. As she passed by, behind the brick wall, I saw her clearly still.

All objects within my panoramic gaze trembled and vibrated like quick motion pictures. My body, Master's, the pillared courtyard, the furniture and floor, the trees and sunshine, occasionally became violently agitated, until all melted into a luminescent sea; even as sugar crystals, thrown into a glass of water, dissolve after being shaken. The unifying light alternated with materializations of form, the metamorphoses revealing the law of cause and effect in creation.

An oceanic joy broke upon calm endless shores of my soul. The Spirit of God, I realized, is exhaustless Bliss; His body is countless tissues of light. A swelling glory within me began to envelop towns, continents, the earth, solar and stellar systems, tenuous nebulae, and floating universes. The entire cosmos, gently luminous, like a city seen afar at night, glimmered within the infinitude of my being. The sharply etched global outlines faded somewhat at the farthest edges; there I could see a mellow radiance, ever-undiminished. It was indescribably subtle; the planetary pictures were formed of a grosser light.

The divine dispersion of rays poured from an Eternal Source, blazing into galaxies, transfigured with ineffable auras. Again and again I saw the creative beams condense into constellations, then resolve into sheets of transparent flame. By rhythmic reversion, sextillion worlds passed into diaphanous luster; fire became firmament.

I cognized the center of the empyrean as a point of intuitive perception in my heart. Irradiating splendor issued from my nucleus to every part of the universal structure. Blissful amrita, the nectar of immortality, pulsed through me with a quicksilverlike fluidity. The creative voice of God I heard resounding as Aum,1 the vibration of the Cosmic Motor.

Suddenly the breath returned to my lungs. With a disappointment almost unbearable, I realized that my infinite immensity was lost. Once more I was limited to the humiliating cage of a body, not easily accommodative to the Spirit. Like a prodigal child, I had run away from my macrocosmic home and imprisoned myself in a narrow microcosm.

=====

Source : Autobiograhy of a yogi, chap 14 An experience in cosmic consciousness

http://www.crystalclarity.com/yogananda/14.asp

[Pheena]

"For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son."-John 5:22. "No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him."-John 1:18. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father."-John 14:12. "But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said to you."-John 14:26.

These Biblical words refer to the threefold nature of God as Father, Son, Holy Ghost (Sat, Tat, Aum in the Hindu scriptures). God the Father is the Absolute, Unmanifested, existing beyond vibratory creation. God the Son is the Christ Consciousness (Brahma or Kutastha Chaitanya) existing within vibratory creation; this Christ Consciousness is the "only begotten" or sole reflection of the Uncreated Infinite. Its outward manifestation or "witness" is Aum or Holy Ghost, the divine, creative, invisible power which structures all creation through vibration. Aum the blissful Comforter is heard in meditation and reveals to the devotee the ultimate Truth

[Pheena]

"As soon as the knowledge of the Reality has sprung up, there can be no fruits of past actions to be experienced, owing to the unreality of the body, in the same way as there can be no dream after waking."

[Pheena]

By a secret method, the yogi unites his mind and astral vehicle with those of a suffering individual; the disease is conveyed, wholly or in part, to the saint's body. Having harvested God on the physical field, a master no longer cares what happens to that material form. Though he may allow it to register a certain disease in order to relieve others, his mind is never affected; he considers himself fortunate in being able to render such aid.

The devotee who has achieved final salvation in the Lord finds that his body has completely fulfilled its purpose; he can then use it in any way he deems fit. His work in the world is to alleviate the sorrows of mankind, whether through spiritual means or by intellectual counsel or through will power or by the physical transfer of disease. Escaping to the superconsciousness whenever he so desires, a master can remain oblivious of physical suffering; sometimes he chooses to bear bodily pain stoically, as an example to disciples. By putting on the ailments of others, a yogi can satisfy, for them, the karmic law of cause and effect. This law is mechanically or mathematically operative; its workings can be scientifically manipulated by men of divine wisdom.

The spiritual law does not require a master to become ill whenever he heals another person. Healings ordinarily take place through the saint's knowledge of various methods of instantaneous cure in which no hurt to the spiritual healer is involved. On rare occasions, however, a master who wishes to greatly quicken his disciples' evolution may then voluntarily work out on his own body a large measure of their undesirable karma.

Jesus signified himself as a ransom for the sins of many. With his divine powers,4 his body could never have been subjected to death by crucifixion if he had not willingly cooperated with the subtle cosmic law of cause and effect. He thus took on himself the consequences of others' karma, especially that of his disciples. In this manner they were highly purified and made fit to receive the omnipresent consciousness which later descended on them.

Only a self-realized master can transfer his life force, or convey into his own body the diseases of others. An ordinary man cannot employ this yogic method of cure, nor is it desirable that he should do so; for an unsound physical instrument is a hindrance to God-meditation. The Hindu scriptures teach that the first duty of man is to keep his body in good condition; otherwise his mind is unable to remain fixed in devotional concentration.

A very strong mind, however, can transcend all physical difficulties and attain to God-realization. Many saints have ignored illness and succeeded in their divine quest. St. Francis of Assisi, severely afflicted with ailments, healed others and even raised the dead.

[Pheena]

Man is Shiva already in essence. The essential Reality in him has put on the mask of jîva. When the jîva intensely recognizes his essential Reality, the mask is thrown off. The state of ... veiling disappears; grace is operative now, and the jîva becomes Shiva (that he was in reality).

http://www.digiserve.com/mystic/Hindu/Vijn...rava/index.html

[Pheena]

When the mind of the aspirant becomes introverted, and he considers his essential Self as completely separate from desire which is only a play of the mind which is not-self, then desires dissolve in the mind even as waves rising on the surface of the sea dissolve in the sea itself.

If another desire arises, the best means of putting an end to the desire is to shift the attention from the desire to the underlying spiritual Reality, the creative moment between the two desires, known as unmesa.

http://www.digiserve.com/mystic/Hindu/Vijn...rava/index.html

[Pheena]

Letting go of thoughts

(Quotations from The Vijñâna Bhairava)

One can be aware of {the highest state of Bhairava} only when one is completely free of all thought-constructs.

(p. 14, verse 15)

Each vikalpa {i.e. thought-construct} has two aspects; the positive aspect consists of the idea that is selected, and the negative consists of the rest that are set aside or rejected. Vikalpas are concerned with particulars. Secondly, vikalpas are relational i.e. there is always a subject-object relationship in vikalpas. Reality is non-relational, there is no object outside Reality. Therefore vikalpas are unable to grasp Reality.

(p. xxxviii)

Behind all the activities of the mind lies Reality which gives life to our mental activity. That Reality cannot be viewed as an object, for it is the Eternal Subject and ground of all experience. If we do not allow our mind to be carried away by the perceptions or ideas succeeding each other incessantly but rather let our mind dip in the gap between the two perceptions or ideas without thinking of any thing, we will, to our surprise, be bathed in that Reality which can never be an object of thought... The two ideas have not to be pushed aside by effort but have to be abandoned by a smooth, gentle non-observation. This is a very important and unfailing dharana for the grasp of Reality or nature of Bhairava.

(p. 58, commentary on verse 61, dharana 38)

When one becomes fully convinced... that he is not his psychic apparatus consisting of mind, the ascertaining intellect, and the ego with which he is always identified, then his mind ceases to form vikalpas (thought-constructs) and his essential nature which transcends all vikalpas is revealed.

(p. 86, commentary on verse 94, dharana 71)

http://www.digiserve.com/mystic/Hindu/Vijn...rava/index.html

[Pheena]

Redirecting your attention

(Quotations from The Vijñâna Bhairava)

{This dhâranâ} teaches that it is necessary to detach oneself from the activities of the senses also which lead us on towards the pleasure of the external world. This is to be effected principally through shakti-sankoca which has been defined in the following words in Pratyabhijñâhrdayam:

Shakti-sankoca consists in turning in towards the Self, by the process of withdrawal, of that consciousness which is spreading externally through the doors of the senses (towards the objects).

Shakti sankoca is the technique of introversion or interiorization. By this practice, one becomes svastha, i.e. poised in oneself and the attractions of the world do not trouble him any longer. He is freed from the opposites of pleasure and pain and abides in his essential Self which is the nature of Bhairava.

(p. 126, commentary on verse 136, dharana 111)

http://www.digiserve.com/mystic/Hindu/Vijn...rava/index.html

[Pheena]

Dying and being reborn

(Quotations from The Vijñâna Bhairava)

The chrysalis of the go has to split before one can enter the sanctum sanctorum of the Divine Presence. In the words of Kathopnishad ... Yoga is both dissolution and emergence -- both death and rebirth. One has to die to live. It is a divine filiation and cannot be described in any human language, for it is reality of a different dimension. In the beautiful words of Dr. Anand K. Coomaraswamy, "The condition of deification is an eradication of all otherness." It is for this consummation that 112 dhâranâs have been described Vijñânabhairava.

(p. xlvi)

When the aspirant has reached a stage where he fully realizes that buddhi, manas, prâna and the ego are only formations of Maya for carrying on the individual life, that they are only the instruments of Self and do not constitute his essential Self, then he is poised in his essential Self which is the nature of Bhairava, then these instruments reflect the life of the Spirit and can no longer hamper its expression.

(p. 129, commentary on verse 138)

One can have an experience of that bliss in his own inmost self (when one is completely rid of the ego, and is established in pûrnâhantâ i.e. in the plenitude of the divine I-consciousness)

(p. 14, verse 15)

http://www.digiserve.com/mystic/Hindu/Vijn...rava/index.html