Here, I always urge people simply to live in the unborn Buddha-mind. I don't try to make anyone do anything else.
We haven't any special rules. But since everyone got together and decided that they wanted to spend six hours each day (for a period of twelve sticks of incense) doing zazen, I let them do as they wish. That amount of time has been set aside for zazen. But the unborn Buddha-mind has no connection with those sticks of incense. It's just being at home in the Buddha-mind, not straying into illusion, and not seeking enlightenment beyond that. Just sit in the Buddha-mind, stand in the Buddha-mind, sleep in the Buddha-mind, awake in the Buddha-mind, do everything in the Buddha-mind-then you'll be functioning as a living Buddha in all that you do in your daily life. There's nothing further.
#BankeiYotaku
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"The experience of Being is only love, which consists of seeing only love, hearing only love,
feel only love, taste only love, smell nothing but love that's bliss. "
#SriRamanaMaharshi
Q: In turning the mind inwards, are we not still employing the mind?
A: Of course we are employing the mind. It is well known and admitted that only with the help of the mind can the mind be killed.
But instead of setting about saying there is a mind, and I want to kill it, you begin to seek the source of the mind, and you find the mind does not exist at all. The mind, turned outwards, results in thoughts and objects. Turned inwards, it becomes itself the Self.
#SriRamanaMaharshi
Disciple: Is it not funny that the "|" should be searching for the "|"? Does not the enquiry,
"Who am I?" turn out in the end [to bel an empty formula? Or, am I to put the question to myself endlessly, repeating it like [al mantra?
Bhagavan: Self-enquiry is certainly not an empty formula; it is more than repetition of any mantra. If the enquiry, "Who am I?" were a mere mental questioning, it would not be of much value. The very purpose of Self-enquiry is to focus the entire mind at its Source. It is not, therefore, a case of one "I" searching for another "I."
...
Where the "I" merges, another entity emerges as "'" - "I" ( or "| am I") of its own accord. That is the perfect Self.
#SriRamanaMaharshi
When the meditator forgets himself totally in meditation, it is 'vishranti' which means complete relaxation ending in total forgetfulness. This is the blissful state, where there is no need for words, concepts or even the sense of 'I am. The state does not know 'it is' and is beyond happiness and suffering and altogether beyond words; it is called the
'Parabrahman' - a non-experiential state....
Before the emanation of any words, '!' already exist; later I say mentally 'I am. The word-free and thought-free state is the
'atman'.
#SriNisargadattaMaharaj
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"My intention is to wake you up. My heart wants you awake. I see you suffer in your dream and I know that you must wake up to end your woes.
When you see your dream as dream, then you wake up...you need not bring your dream to a definite conclusion, or make it noble, or happy, or beautiful... all you need is to realize that you are dreaming.
Stop imagining, stop believing. See the contradictions, the inconsistencies...in the dream you love some and not others. On waking up you find you are love itself, embracing all. Personal love, however intense and genuine, invariably binds; love in freedom is love of all.
When you are love itself, you are beyond time...In loving one you love all, in loving all, you love each. One and all are not exclusive."
#SriNisargadattaMaharaj
When the mind is kept away from its preoccupations, it becomes quiet.
If you do not disturb this quiet and stay in it.
you find that it is permeated with a light and a love you have never known.
And yet you recognize it at once as your own nature.
Once you have passed through this experience,
you will never be the same man again, the unruly mind may break its peace and obliterate its vision,
but it is bound to return, provided the effort is sustained,
until the day when all bonds are broken, delusions and attachments end, and life becomes supremely concentrated in the present.
#SriNisargadattaMaharaj
"Realization of God is not a mere matter of reading scriptures or performing rituals; it is a direct experience that transcends the intellect.
Just as one cannot describe
the taste of honey without tasting it, one cannot understand the nature of God without experiencing His presence in one's heart."
#SriRamakrishnaParamhansa
Why do you consider non essentials so important?
Most people concentrate on breakiast, lunch, and dinner, work, social activities, and so on. Make your life more simple and put your whole mind on the Lord.
#ParamahansaYogananda
"The true state of the Self is prosperity, wisdom, love and peace." Being so happy that no matter what you do, you enjoy what you do. "
#ParamahansaYogananda
Do not say: 'Tomorrow I will meditate longer! You will suddenly find that a year has passed without fulfillment of your good intentions. Instead, say: 'This can wait and that can wait, but my search for God cannot wait!
#ParamahansaYogananda
In one of His aspects, a very touching aspect, the Lord may be said to be a beggar. He yearns for our attention. The Master of the Universe, at whose glance all stars, suns, moons, and planets quiver, is running after man and saying: "Won't you give Me your affection? Don't you love Me, the Giver, more than the things I have made for you? Won't you seek Me?" But man says: "I am too busy now; I have work to do. I can't take time to look for You." And the Lord says: "I will wait."
#ParamahansaYogananda
FORGIVENESS is more powerful than revenge. I have forgiven everyone who has knowingly or unknowingly tried to annoy or hurt me. I want nothing for myself anymore. I have found such joy in my heart by giving everything to God and doing everything for Him. Those who do evil stew in their own evil. They can't really hurt you unless you let them. Even our enemies are all part of the tests of life. When an evil person tries to persecute you, remember that he has probably tried to harm you in some way in the past also. If you think of that hurt and how terrible that person is, that is a great mistake. When you give out hateful thoughts, that person receives them and hates you twice as much. Also, hate attracts, as does love. You don't want the magnet of your hate to draw your enemies near you. Never hate anyone.
Love and forgiveness have a healing effect on yourself and on your enemies. And be grateful for all the wonderful friends God has given to you.
#ParamahansaYogananda
Saints are sinners who did not give up. No matter what your difficulties, if you do not give up, you are making progress in your struggle against the stream. To struggle is to win the favor of God.
#ParamahansaYogananda
If through sincerity and unconditional devotion your prayers reach God, it matters not if your sins be deeper than the ocean and higher than the Himalayas. he will destroy those karmic obstacles. For a time, perhaps, you may sink under a stratum of darkness; but still you are a spark of an Eternal Flame.You can hide the spark,but you can never destroy it.
#ParamahansaYogananda
Do not drag the negative past or future into the present. Understand the
possibilities of the present. The present, is our way, our vehicle for changing reality. Your escape hatch is right here.
#KuanYin
When you prepare a meal with artful awareness, it's delicious and healthy.
You have put your mindfulness, love, and care into the meal, then people will be eating your love.
#ThichNhatHanh
time to time you may become restless, and the restlessness will not go away. At such times, just sit quietly, follow your breathing, smile a half-smile, and shine your awareness on the restlessness."
#ThichNhatHanh
You are perfect,
so abandon the idea of imperfection.
There is nothing to be destroyed.
Ego is not a real thing.
It is the mind which makes the effort, and the mind is not real.
Just as it is not necessary to kill the rope which one imagines to be a snake, so also there is no need to destroy the mind.
Knowing the form of the mind makes the mind disappear.
#SriRamanaMaharshi
What is the mark of the ego?
The individual soul of the form of 'l' is the ego. The Self which is of the nature of intelligence
(chit) has no sense of l. Nor does the insentient body possess a sense of 'I'. The mysterious appearance of a delusive ego between the intelligent and the insentient, being the root cause of all these troubles, upon its destruction by whatever means, that which really exists will be seen as it is.
This is called Liberation (moksha).
#SriRamanaMaharshi.
"Don't you see, japa, mantras, puja, prayer and ritual, are all excellent up to a certain point. But the time comes when all that has to be left aside. You have to take a leap into the beyond,.. in the beyond you find the Real.
Only when everything has been left behind, devas along with everything else, can you find the vision which has no beginning and no ending, the vision of Being, of the Self."
#SriRamanaMaharshi
What you call matter is
consciousness Itself!
You are the space (akash) in which it moves, the time in which it lasts, the love that gives it life! Cut off imagination and attachment and what
remains?
Q: The world remains. I remain.
M: Yes. But how different it is when you can see it as it is, not through the
screen of desire and fear!
#SriNisargadattaMaharaj
Once you realize
that all happens by itself (call it destiny or the will of God or mere accident),
you remain as witness only, understanding and enjoying but not perturbed.
#SriNisargadattaMaharaj
Meditation is the most important way to resurrect the soul from the slavery of the body and from the shackles of all trials. Meditate at the feet of Infinity. Learn to saturate yourself with God consciousness. Your trials may be heavy, they may be great, but your greatest enemy is yourself. You are immortal; your trials are deadly. They are changeable; you are unchangeable. You can release infinite powers and disintegrate your infinite trials.
#ParamahansaYogananda
"You have to grow from the inside out. None can teach you, none can make you spiritual. There is no other teacher but your own soul."
#SwamiVivekananda
In mindfulness
one is not only restful and happy,
but alert and awake.
Meditation is not evasion; it is a serene encounter with reality.
#ThichNhatHanh
What is malleable is always superior to that which is immovable. This is the principle of controlling things by going along with them of mastery through adaptation.
#LaoTzu
.....My heart,
sing the song of longing like a nightingale.
The sound of your voice casts a spell on every stone, on every thorn.
First,
lay down your head, then one by one let go of all distractions.
Embrace the Light and let it guide you, beyond the winds of desire.
There,
you will find a spring and nourished by its see waters like a tree
you will bear fruit forever."
#Rumi
BHAGAVAN IS EVERYWHERE
==========================
Someone asked Bhagavan to bless them upon their departure knowing that possibly they might never get the chance to be at
Ramanasramam again:
“M.: You do not go anywhere away from the Presence as you imagine. The Presence is everywhere. The body moves from place to
place; yet it does not leave the one Presence. So no one can be out of sight of the Supreme Presence. Since you identify one body with
Bhagavan and another body with yourself, you find two separate entities and speak of going away from here. Wherever you may be,
you cannot leave ME.
“To illustrate it: The pictures move on the screen in a cinema show; but does the screen itself move?
No.
The Presence is the screen: you, I, and others are the pictures. The individuals may move but not the Self.”*
So when we say Bhagavan is everywhere what do we really mean?
Bhagavan is telling us that our goal is here and now but we keep identifying with the pictures and not the screen on which it happens.
Bhagavan does nothing. How can he when he is not identified with or controlled by a body? This may sound strange because the power
of Grace which we ascribe to ‘him’ works wonders but it is true.
It is ‘automatic divine action’ which happens because we are receptive.
For a moment we are in tune with this stillness and are not identified with any thought or feeling. There is no sense of opposition or separateness.
There is no desire, no fear. This simple step is the beginning.
We slowly come to understand that Bhagavan is not bound by time or space nor our concepts as to who ‘he’ is. Once that indelible
revelation is given to us through an unmistakable encounter at the Samadhi, or a dream, or an instant of recognition when we see his photograph or a sentence in his teachings, we are joined to his Name.
We begin to realise that Bhagavan is everywhere and wherever any of us gather in his Name he is there; wherever any one of us prays to him, he is there; wherever any one contemplates him, he is there.
For each one of us, we only need to remember him any time and in any place, he is always there.
We may not always be aware of Bhagavan but Bhagavan is certainly aware of us.
* Venkataramiah, M., (comp.), Talks with #SriRamanaMaharshi
The body is insentient and cannot say I.
The Self is pure consciousness and non-dual. It cannot say I.
No one says I in sleep.
What is the ego then?
It is something intermediate
between the inert body and the Self.
It has no locus standi.
If sought for it vanishes like a ghost.
#SriRamanaMaharshi
The real is, behind and beyond words, incommunicable, directly experienced, explosive in its effect on the mind.
It is easily had when nothing else is wanted.
#SriNisargadattaMaharaj
By being with yourself, the 'I am', by watching yourself in your daily life with alert interest, with the intention to understand rather than judge, in full acceptance of whatever may emerge, because it is there, you encourage the deep to come to the surface, and enrich your life and consciousness with its captive energies.
#SriNisargadattaMaharaj
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