The Strength of Stillness - By Sri Aurobindo

There are two great forces in the universe, silence and speech. Silence prepares, speech creates. Silence acts, speech gives the impulse to action. Silence compels, speech persuades. The immense and inscrutable processes of the world all perfect themselves within, in a deep and august silence, covered by a noisy and misleading surface of sound--the stir of innumerable waves above, the fathomless resistless mass of the ocean's waters below. Men see the waves, they hear the rumour and the thousand voices and by these they judge the course of the future and the heart of God's intention; but in nine cases out of ten they misjudge. Therefore it is said that in History it is always the unexpected that happens. But it would not be the unexpected if men could turn their eyes from superficies and look into substance, if they accustomed themselves to put aside appearances and penetrate beyond them to the secret and disguised reality, if they ceased listening to the noise of life and listened rather to its silence.

The greatest exertions are made with the breath held in; the faster the breathing, the more the dissipation of energy. He who in action can cease from breathing,--naturally, spontaneously,--is the master of Prana, the energy that acts and creates throughout the universe. It is a common experience of the Yogin that when thought ceases, breathing ceases,--the entire kumbhak effected by the Hathayogin with infinite trouble and gigantic effort, establishes itself easily and happily,--but when thought begins again, the breath resumes its activity. But when the thought flows without the resumption of the inbreathing and outbreathing, then the Prana is truly conquered. This is a law of Nature. When we strive to act, the forces of Nature do their will with us; when we grow still, we become their master. But there are two kinds of stillness--the helpless stillness of inertia, which heralds dissolution, and the stillness of assured sovereignty which commands the harmony of life. It is the sovereign stillness which is the calm of the Yogin. The more complete the calm, the mightier the yogic power, the greater the force in action. In this calm, right knowledge comes.

The thoughts of men are a tangle of truth and falsehood, satyam and anritam. True perception is marred and clouded by false perception, true judgment lamed by false judgment, true imagination distorted by false imagination, true memory deceived by false memory. The activity of the mind must cease, the chitta be purified, a silence fall upon the restlessness of Prakriti, then in that calm, in that voiceless stillness illumination comes upon the mind, error begins to fall away and, so long as desire does not stir again, clarity establishes itself in the higher stratum of the consciousness compelling peace and joy in the lower. Right knowledge becomes the infallible source of right action. Yogah karmasu kaushalam.

The knowledge of the Yogin is not the knowledge of the average desire-driven mind. Neither is it the knowledge of the scientific or of the worldly-wise reason which anchors itself on surface facts and leans upon experience and probability. The Yogin knows God's way of working and is aware that the improbable often happens, that facts mislead. He rises above reason to that direct and illuminated knowledge which we call vijñanam. The desire-driven mind is emmeshed in the intricate tangle of good and evil, of the pleasant and the unpleasant, of happiness and misfortune. It strives to have the good always, the pleasant always, the happiness always. It is elated by fortunate happenings, disturbed and unnerved by their opposite. But the illuminated eye of the seer perceives that all leads to good; for God is all and God is sarvamangalam. He knows that the apparent evil is often the shortest way to the good, the unpleasant indispensable to prepare the pleasant, misfortune the condition of obtaining a more perfect happiness. His intellect is delivered from enslavement to the dualities.

Therefore the action of the Yogin will not be as the action of the ordinary man. He will often seem to acquiesce in evil, to avoid the chance of relieving misfortune, to refuse his assent to the efforts of the noble-hearted who withstand violence and wickedness; he will seem to be acting pishacavat. Or men will think him jada, inert, a stone, a block, because he is passive, where activity appears to be called for; silent, where men expect voicefulness; unmoved, where there is reason for deep and passionate feeling. When he acts, men will call him unmatta, a madman, eccentric or idiot; for his actions will often seem to have no definite result or purpose, to be wild, unregulated, regardless of sense and probability or inspired by a purpose and a vision which is not for this world. And it is true that he follows a light which other men do not possess or would even call darkness; that what is a dream to them, is to him a reality; that their night is his day. And this is the root of the difference that, while they reason, he knows.

To be capable of silence, stillness, illuminated passivity is to be fit for immortality--amritatvaya kalpate. It is to be dhira, the ideal of our ancient civilisation, which does not mean to be tamasic, inert and a block. The inaction of the tamasic man is a stumbling-block to the energies around him, the inaction of the Yogin creates, preserves and destroys; his action is dynamic with the direct, stupendous driving-power of great natural forces.

It is a stillness within often covered by a ripple of talk and activity without,--the ocean with its lively surface of waves. But even as men do not see the reality of God's workings from the superficial noise of the world and its passing events, for they are hidden beneath that cover, so also shall they fail to understand the action of the Yogin, for he is different within from what he is outside. The strength of noise and activity is, doubtless, great,--did not the walls of Jericho fall by the force of noise? But infinite is the strength of the stillness and the silence, in which great forces prepare for action.

Source: Essay from the KARMAYOGIN (1909-1910)19 February 1910

Clock Time!

Why does the mind habitually deny or resist the Now? Because it cannot function and remain in control without time, which is past and future, so it perceives the timeless Now as threatening. Time and mind are in fact inseparable.

Imagine the Earth devoid of human life, inhabited only by plants and animals. Would it still have a past and a future? Could we still speak of time in any meaningful way? The question “What time is it? or “What’s the date today?” – if anybody were there to ask it – would be quite meaningless. The oak tree or the eagle would be bemused by such a question. “What time?” they would ask. “Well, of course, it is the Now. The time is Now. What else is there?”

Source: The Power of Now, by Eckhart Tolle

"Watching The Thinker"

When someone goes to the doctor and says, "I hear a voice in my head," he or she will most likely be sent to a psychiatrist. The fact is that, in a very similar way, virtually everyone hears a voice, or several voices, in their head all the time: the involuntary thought processes that you don't realize you have the power to stop. Continuous monologues or dialogues.

You have probably come across "mad" people in the street incessantly talking or muttering to themselves. Well, that's not much different from what you and all other "normal" people do, except that you don't do it out loud. The voice comments, speculates, judges, compares, complains, likes, dislikes, and so on. The voice isn't necessarily relevant to the situation you find yourself in at the time; it may be reviving the recent or distant past or rehearsing or imagining possible future situations. Here it often imagines things going wrong and negative outcomes; this is called worry. Sometimes this soundtrack is accompanied by visual images or "mental movies."

Even if the voice is relevant to the situation at hand, it will interpret it in terms of the past. This is because the voice belongs to your conditioned mind, which is the result of all your past history as well as of the collective cultural mind-set you inherited. So you see and judge the present through the eyes of the past and get a totally distorted view of it. It is not uncommon for the voice to be a person's own worst enemy. Many people live with a tormentor in their head that continuously attacks and punishes them and drains them of vital energy. It is the cause of untold misery and unhappiness, as well as of disease.

The good news is that you can free yourself from your mind. This is the only true liberation. You can take the first step right now. Start listening to the voice in your head as often as you can. Pay particular attention to any repetitive thought patterns, those old gramophone records that have been playing in your head perhaps for many years. This is what I mean by "watching the thinker," which is another way of saying: listen to the voice in your head, be there as the witnessing presence.

When you listen to that voice, listen to it impartially. That is to say, do not judge. Do not judge or condemn what you hear, for doing so would mean that the same voice has come in again through the back door. You'll soon realize: there is the voice, and here I am listening to it, watching it. This I am realization, this sense of your own presence, is not a thought. It arises from beyond the mind.

So when you listen to a thought, you are aware not only of the thought but also of yourself as the witness of the thought. A new dimension of consciousness has come in. As you listen to the thought, you feel a conscious presence - your deeper self - behind or underneath the thought, as it were. The thought then loses its power over you and quickly subsides, because you are no longer energizing the mind through identification with it. This is the beginning of the end of involuntary and compulsive thinking.

When a thought subsides, you experience a discontinuity in the mental stream - a gap of "no-mind." At first, the gaps will be short, a few seconds perhaps, but gradually they will become longer. When these gaps occur, you feel a certain stillness and peace inside you. This is the beginning of your natural state of felt oneness with Being, which is usually obscured by the mind. With practice, the sense of stillness and peace will deepen. In fact, there is no end to its depth. You will also feel a subtle emanation of joy arising from deep within: the joy of Being.

It is not a trancelike state. Not at all. There is no loss of consciousness here. The opposite is the case. If the price of peace were a lowering of your consciousness, and the price of stillness a lack of vitality and alertness, then they would not be worth having. In this state of inner connectedness, you are much more alert, more awake than in the mind-identified state. You are fully present. It also raises the vibrational frequency of the energy field that gives life to the physical body.

As you go more deeply into this realm of no-mind, as it is sometimes called in the East, you realize the state of pure consciousness. In that state, you feel your own presence with such intensity and such joy that all thinking, all emotions, your physical body, as well as the whole external world become relatively insignificant in comparison to it. And yet this is not a selfish but a selfless state. It takes you beyond what you previously thought of as "your self." That presence is essentially you and at the same time inconceivably greater than you. What I am trying to convey here may sound paradoxical or even contradictory, but there is no other way that I can express it.

Instead of "watching the thinker," you can also create a gap in the mind stream simply by directing the focus of your attention into the Now. Just become intensely conscious of the present moment. This is a deeply satisfying thing to do. In this way, you draw consciousness away from mind activity and create a gap of no-mind in which you are highly alert and aware but not thinking. This is the essence of meditation.

In your everyday life, you can practice this by taking any routine activity that normally is only a means to an end and giving it your fullest attention, so that it becomes an end in itself. For example, every time you walk up and down the stairs in your house or place of work, pay close attention to every step, every movement, even your breathing. Be totally present. Or when you wash your hands, pay attention to all the sense perceptions associated with the activity: the sound and feel of the water, the movement of your hands, the scent of the soap, and so on. Or when you get into your car, after you close the door, pause for a few seconds and observe the flow of your breath. Become aware of a silent but powerful sense of presence. There is one certain criterion by which you can measure your success in this practice: the degree of peace that you feel within.

So the single most vital step on your journey toward enlightenment is this: learn to disidentify from your mind. Every time you create a gap in the stream of mind, the light of your consciousness grows stronger.

One day you may catch yourself smiling at the voice in your head, as you would smile at the antics of a child. This means that you no longer take the content of your mind all that seriously, as your sense of self does not depend on it.

Source: The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Witnessing The Breath - A Powerful Spiritual Practice

OSHO on Vipassana (Witnessing the Breath)

Buddha's way was Vipassana- vipassana means witnessing. And he found out one of the greatest devices ever, the device of watching your breath. There are four points to be watched- The incoming breath, the gap when for a split second it stops, the breath turns and goes out, and a split second gap before it starts coming in. If you can watch all the four points, you will be surprised, amazed, at the miracle of such a simple process- because the mind is not involved. Watching is not a quality of the mind; but of the Consciousness.

Eckhart Tolle on watching the breath as a powerful spiritual practice

Eckhart Tolle has something similar to say on this technique. He says that if one were to watch one's breath as much as possible for a year, it would be more spiritually transformational than most other spiritual practices.

Bringing the Mind to "I AM"

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 recognise 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.

I am not asking you to look in any particular direction. Just look away from all that happens in your mind and bring it to the feeling 'I am'. The 'I am' is not a direction. It is the negation of all direction. Ultimately even the 'I am' will have to go, for you need not keep on asserting what is obvious. Bringing the mind to the feeling 'I am' merely helps in turning the mind away from everything else.

Source: The book- "I AM THAT"

Nothing Existed Except the Eyes of the Maharshi - N.R.Krishnamurti Aiyer

This article by N.R.Krishnamurti Aiyer, a great devotee of Bhagavan Ramana Maharishi, is a wonderful account of his profound spiritual transformation by the Grace of Bhagavan.

N.R.Krishnamurti Aiyer was an agostic until he met Bhagavan. A series of spiritual experiences transformed him completely, and finally established him in the Self. The "Power of the Presence", includes an entire chapter on NR Krishnamurti Aiyer's experiences.

This inspiring account is available in the weblink "Nothing Existed except the Eyes of the Maharishi" in www.realization.org .

Only the Truth Is And You Are That!

"Only the Truth is and you are That!

You Are the unchanging Awareness in which all activities takes place. To deny this is to suffer, to know this is Freedom.

It is not difficult to realize this because it is your True Nature. Simply Inquire 'Who am I?' and Watch Carefully. Do not make effort and do not stir a thought. Look within, approach with all-devotion and stay as Heart. Keep vigilant and you will see that nothing will arise.

This is the trick of how to keep the mind quite and how to win Freedom. This doesn't take time because Freedom is always Here. You simply have to watch: where does mind arise from? Where does thought come from? What is the source of this thought? Then you will see that you have always been Free and that everything has been a dream."

Source: From the book "The Truth Is"- A collection of discourses and dialogues with Papaji

The Transformational Power of Spiritual Books

Eckhart Tolle says that it is possible for a person to be spiritually awakened by reading a spiritual book, and lists three pre-conditions for this awakening to happen. Given below is the question posed to Eckhart and his response.

Q:Can a person be awakened spiritually by a book?

ET:Yes, if three conditions are met:

Firstly, there must be a readiness on the part of the reader, an openness, a receptivity to spiritual truth, which is to say, a readiness to awaken. For the first time in history of humanity, large numbers of people have reached that point of readiness, which explains why millions have responded so deeply to The Power of Now.

Secondly, the text must have transformative power. This means the words must have come out of the awakened consciousness rather than the accumulated knowledge of a person’s mind. Only then will a text be charged with that power, a power that goes far beyond the informational value of the words. That is why such a book can be read again and again and lose none of its aliveness.

Thirdly, the terminology used needs to be as neutral as possible so that it transcends the confines of any one culture, religion, or spiritual tradition. Only then will it be accessible to a broad range of readers world-wide, regardless of cultural background.

All these conditions were met in The Power of Now, which is why the book has had such an impact on the collective consciousness.

Source: Eckhart Tolle's website

The Sense of "I am" (Consciousness)

When I met my Guru, he told me: "You are not what you take yourself to be. Find out what you are. Watch the sense 'I am', find your real Self." I obeyed him, because I trusted him. I did as he told me. All my spare time I would spend looking at myself in silence. And what a difference it made, and how soon!

My teacher told me to hold on to the sense 'I am' tenaciously and not to swerve from it even for a moment. I did my best to follow his advice and in a comparatively short time I realized within myself the truth of his teaching. All I did was to remember his teaching, his face, his words constantly. This brought an end to the mind; in the stillness of the mind I saw myself as I am -- unbound.

I simply followed (my teacher's) instruction which was to focus the mind on pure being 'I am', and stay in it. I used to sit for hours together, with nothing but the 'I am' in my mind and soon peace and joy and a deep all-embracing love became my normal state. In it all disappeared -- myself, my Guru, the life I lived, the world around me. Only peace remained and unfathomable silence.

Source: The book "I AM THAT"

Select Quotes on Meditation

Meditation doesn't lead you to silence; meditation only creates the situation in which the silence happens. And this should be the criterion- that whenever silence happens, laughter will come into your life. A vital celebration will happen all around. You will not become sad, you will not become depressed, you will not escape from the world. You will be here in this world, but taking the whole thing as a beautiful game, a big drama, no longer serious about it. Seriousness is a disease.

-OSHO-

Remember one thing: meditation means awareness. Whatsoever you do with awareness is meditation. Action is not the question, but the quality that you bring to your action. Walking can be a meditation if you walk alertly. Sitting can be a meditation if you sit alertly. Listening to the birds can be a meditation if you listen with Awareness. Just listening to the inner noise of your mind can be a meditation if you remain alert and watchful. The whole point is: one should not move in sleep. Then whatsoever you do is meditation.

-OSHO-

One conscious breath is meditation.

- Eckhart Tolle-

We know the outer world of sensations and actions, but of our inner world of thoughts and feelings we know very little. The primary purpose of meditation is to become conscious of, and familiar with, our inner life. The ultimate purpose is to reach the source of life and consciousness. Incidentally practice of meditation affects deeply our character. We are slaves to what we do not know; of what we know we are masters. Whatever vice or weakness in ourselves we discover and understand its causes and its workings, we overcome it by the very knowing; the unconscious dissolves when brought into the conscious. The dissolution of the unconscious releases energy; the mind feels adequate and become quiet.

- Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj-

Meditation will help you to find your bonds, loosen them, untie them and cast your moorings. When you are no longer attached to anything, you have done your share. The rest will be done for you.

- Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj-

The Difference Between "Awareness" and "Consciousness"

I am always amazed by the profundity and clarity of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj's words. There is a definitiveness behind his answers. To a question posed to him on the difference between Awareness and Consciousness, this is what he had to say. Most spiritual books, especially the New Age ones, use Awareness and Consciouness interchangeably. I was confused by these terms for a long long time, until I read "I AM THAT", Eckhart Tolle and OSHOs works.

Extract of a conversation with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj ('M' refers to Maharaj)

Q: You use the words 'aware' and 'conscious'. Are they not the same?

M: Awareness is primordial; it is the original state, beginningless, endless, uncaused, unsupported, without parts, without change. Consciousness is on contact, a reflection against a surface, a state of duality. There can be no consciousness without awareness, but there can be awareness without consciousness, as in deep sleep. Awareness is absolute, consciousness is relative to its content; consciousness is always of something. Consciousness is partial and changeful, awareness is total, changeless, calm and silent. And it is the common matrix of every experience.

Q: How does one go beyond consciousness into awareness?

M: Since it is awareness that makes consciousness possible, there is awareness in every state of consciousness. Therefore the very consciousness of being conscious is already a movement in awareness. Interest in your stream of consciousness takes you to awareness. It is not a new state. It is at once recognised as the original, basic existence, which is life itself, and also love and joy.

Q: Since reality is all the time with us, what does self-realisation consist of?

M: Realisation is but the opposite of ignorance. To take the world as real and one’s self as unreal is ignorance. The cause of sorrow. To know the self as the only reality and all else as temporal and transient is freedom, peace and joy. It is all very simple. Instead of seeing things as imagined, learn to see them as they are. It is like cleansing a mirror. The same mirror that shows you the world as it is, will also show you your own face. The thought 'I am' is the polishing cloth. Use it.

Source: I AM THAT, talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj.

How to make the mind steady

Q: How can I make my mind steady?

M: How can an unsteady mind make itself steady? Of course it cannot. It is the nature of the mind to roam about. All you can do is to shift the focus of consciousness beyond the mind.

Q: How is it done?

M: Refuse all thoughts except one: the thought 'I am'. The mind will rebel in the beginning, but with patience and perseverance it will yield and keep quiet. Once you are quiet, things will begin to happen spontaneously and quite naturally without any interference on your part.

Source: I AM THAT, dialogues with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Freedom From Suffering

The sage will give out in reply the supreme secret, confirmed by the [uniform] experience of all sages: ‘If you know yourself, there is no suffering for you. If you suffer [it only means that] you do not know yourself.’

‘Since you have no suffering in deep sleep, this suffering is only falsely ascribed to your Self. Realise the truth of yourself by the resolve to know it, and thereafter remain in your own true nature, which is bliss.’

The real Self transcends the mind and is therefore unaffected by pleasure and pain. These are in and of the mind alone. The proof of this is that these are experienced only when the mind is functioning – as in waking and dream – and not when the mind is still, as in deep sleep. To be free from suffering the only means, therefore, is to become aware of one’s real Self by the quest taught by Bhagavan, our Guru.

Source: Verses from the Ramana Para Vidyopanishad from David Godman's website

Selected verses on the Guru

I found this selection of verses on the Guru, from Guru Vachaka Kovai in David Godman's website. The link is "Selected verses on the Guru from Guru Vachaka Kovai"

The Guru Vachaka Kovai (GVK) by Sri Muruganar, a great devotee of Bhagavan Ramana Maharishi, is opined to be one of the most authoritative collection of Bhagavan's teachings. GVK acquires great sanctity, as Bhagavan is supposed to have read and approved the entire work, gave its title, and even composed some verses. This work has been published by Ramanashram in 2005.

Source: David Godman's website

Enlightenment

The word enlightenment conjures up the idea of some super-human accomplishment, and the ego likes to keep it that way, but it is simply your natural state of felt oneness with Being. It is a state of connectedness with something immeasurable and indestructible, something that, almost paradoxically, is essentially you and yet is much greater than you. It is finding your true nature beyond name and form. The inability to feel this connectedness gives rise to the illusion of separation, from yourself and from the world around you. You then perceive yourself, consciously or unconsciously, as an isolated fragment. Fear arises, and conflict within and without becomes the norm.

I love the Buddha's simple definition of enlightenment as "the end of suffering." There is nothing superhuman in that, is there? Of course, as a definition it is incomplete. It only tells you what enlightenment is not: no suffering. But what's left when there is no more suffering? The Buddha is silent on that, and his silence implies that you'll have to find out for yourself. He uses a negative definition, so that the mind cannot make it into something to believe in or into a superhuman accomplishment, a goal that is impossible for you to attain. Despite this precaution, the majority of Buddhists still believe that enlightenment is for the Buddha, not for them, at least not in this lifetime.

Excerpt from the Power of Now, by Eckhart Tolle

Can Spiritual Practice Liberate Us?

For a long time, I was under the impression that a technique like meditation will bestow Self realisation. This view of mine was completely shattered, when I read the works of Eckhart Tolle, Bhagavan Ramana Maharishi, and Sri Lakshmanaswamy who had realised the Self in the Presence of Bhagavan.

Bhagavan and Sri Laksmanaswamy emphatically say that any form of spiritual practice can be helpful upto a point, but will not in itself bestow the final liberation. The state of Self-realisation happens when after much self-enquiry , and the Grace of the Jnani or the Self pulls back the mind and completely destroys the "I" thought.

Eckhart Tolle, when questioned by Andrew Cohen in the interview "Ripples on the Surface of Being", had this answer to the age old question on whether a spiritual practice can truly liberate us?

ET: I wouldn't say that the practice itself has the power to liberate. It's only when there is complete surrender to the now, to what is, that liberation is possible. I do not believe that a practice will take you into complete surrender. Complete surrender usually happens through living. Your very life is the ground where that happens. There may be a partial surrender and then there may be an opening, and then you may engage in spiritual practice. But whether the spiritual practice is taken up after a certain degree of insight or the spiritual practice is just done in and of itself, the practice alone won't do it.

18 Principles of a Spiritual Life

I found this link 18 Principles of a spiritual life in the Art of Living website. In this article, Sri Sri Ravishankar has nicely summarised the 18 timeless spiritual principles.

Nadi Shuddhi - Recommended by Swami Vivekananda

Take a deep breath and fill the lungs. Slowly throw the breath out. Take it through one nostril and fill the lungs, and throw it out slowly through the other nostril. Some of us do not breathe deeply enough. Others cannot fill the lungs enough. These breathings will correct that very much. Half an hour in the morning and half an hour in the evening will make you another person. This sort of breathing is never dangerous.

Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda

What is Awareness?

You are walking. You are aware of many things - of the shops, of people passing by you, only unaware of one thing - and that is yourself. You are walking on the street, you are aware of many things, and you are only not aware of yourself? This is the awareness of the self, George Gurdjieff has called self-remembering. Gurdjieff says, "Constantly wherever you are, remember yourself."

The miracle of awareness is that you need not do anything except to be aware. whatsoever you are doing, go on doing one thing inside continuously, be aware of yourself doing it. You are eating- be aware of yourself. You are walking- be aware of yourself. You are listening, you are speaking - be aware of yourself. When you are angry, be aware that you are angry. In the very instant that anger is there, be aware that you are angry. This constant remembering of the self, creates a subtle energy, a very subtle energy in you. You begin to be a crystallised being.

Awareness is what makes you a master - and when I say a master, I do not mean a controller. When I say be a master, I mean be a presence, a continuous presence. Whatever you are doing, or not doing, one thing must constantly be in your consciousness, that you are.

The simple feeling of oneself, that one is, creates a center - a center of stillness, a center of silence, a center of inner mastery. It is an inner power. And when I say " an inner power", I mean it literally. That is why the Buddhas talk about the fire of awareness.- it is a fire. If you begin to be aware, you begin to feel a new energy in you, a new fire, a new life. And because of this new life, new power, new energy, many things that were dominating you just dissolve. You don't have to fight with them.

The first step in awareness is to be watchful of your body. Slowly, slowly one becomes alert about each gesture, each movement. And as you become aware, a miracle starts happening: many things that you used to do before simply disappear. Your body becomes more relaxed, more attuned, a deep peace starts prevailing even in your body, a subtle music pulsates in your body.

Then the second step is to start becoming aware of your thoughts- the same has to be done with the thoughts. Slowly the body and the mind will be in accord and not running in different directions. Then the third step is to become aware of your feelings, emotions and moods. Once you are aware of all three, they all become into one phenomenon, and then the fourth happens. Which you cannot do- it happens on its own accord, it is a gift from the whole. It is a reward for those who have done these three. And the fourth is the ultimate awareness that makes one awakened.

Source: The book "Awareness - The Key to Living in Balance" by OSHO

A Jnani Does Not Die Because He Was Never Born

Questioner: When an ordinary man dies, what happens to him?

Maharaj: According to his belief it happens, As life before death is but imagination, so is life after. The dream continues.

Q: And what about the jnani?

M: The jnani does not die because he was never born.

Q: He appears so to others.

M: But not to himself. In himself he is free of things -- physical and mental.

Q: Still you must know the state of the man who died. At least from your own past lives.

M: Until I met my Guru I knew so many things. Now I know nothing, for all knowledge is in dream only and not valid. I know myself and I find no life nor death in me, only pure being -- not being this or that, but just being. But the moment the mind, drawing on its stock of memories, begins to imagine, it fills the space with objects and time with events. As I do not know even this birth, how can I know past births? It is the mind that, itself in movement, sees everything moving, and having created time, worries about the past and future. All the universe is cradled in consciousness (maha tattva), which arises where there is perfect order and harmony (maha sattva).

As all waves are in the ocean, so are all things physical and mental in awareness. Hence awareness itself is all important, not the content of it. Deepen and broaden your awareness of yourself and all the blessings will flow. You need not seek anything, all will come to you most naturally and effortlessly. The five senses and the four functions of the mind -- memory, thought, understanding and selfhood; the five elements -- earth, water, fire, air and ether; the two aspects of creation -- matter and spirit, all are contained in awareness.

Q: Yet, you must believe in having lived before.

M: The scriptures say so, but I know nothing about it. I know myself as I am; as I appeared or will appear is not within my experience. It is not that I do not remember. In fact there is nothing to remember. Reincarnation implies a reincarnating self. There is no such thing. The bundle of memories and hopes, called the 'I', imagines itself existing everlastingly and creates time to accommodate its false eternity: To be, I need no past or future. All experience is born of imagination; I do not imagine, so no birth or death happens to me. Only those who think themselves born can think themselves re-born. You are accusing me of having been born -- I plead not guilty! All exists in awareness and awareness neither dies nor is reborn. It is the changeless reality itself.

All the universe of experience is born with the body and dies with the body; it has its beginning and end in awareness, but awareness knows no beginning, nor end. If you think it out carefully and brood over it for a long time, you will come to see the light of awareness in all its clarity and the world will fade out of your vision. It is like looking at a burning incense stick, you see the stick and the smoke first; when you notice the fiery point, you realise that it has the power to consume mountains of sticks and fill the universe with smoke. Timelessly the self actualises itself, without exhausting its infinite possibilities. In the incense stick simile the stick is the body and the smoke is the mind. As long as the mind is busy with its contortions, it does not perceive its own source. The Guru comes and turns your attention to the spark within.

By its very nature the mind is outward turned; it always tends to seek for the source of things among the things themselves; to be told to look for the source within, is, in a way, the beginning of a new life. Awareness takes the place of consciousness; in consciousness there is the 'I', who is conscious while awareness is undivided; awareness is aware of itself. The 'I am' is a thought, while awareness is not a thought, there is no 'I am aware' in awareness. Consciousness is an attribute while awareness is not; one can be aware of being conscious, but not conscious of awareness. God is the totality of consciousness, but awareness is beyond all -- being as well as not-being.

Source: "I AM THAT", talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Meditation on the feeling of "I" and the Inner Body - Are these techniques similar?

Just yesterday, I was flipping through the "Power of Now" by Eckhart Tolle, and I was pleasantly surprised to find a meditation technique prescribed by him that resonates the methodology of the self-enquiry technique, recommended by Bhagavan Ramana Maharishi.

Eckhart Tolle in chapter 7 of his book "The Power of Now" recommends a meditation technique wherein we meditate on being aware of the entire inner energy field of our body, without any visual image, and simply focus on the inner feeling. By merging with the energy field of the inner body, there would be no longer be a duality of the observer and the observed, and in theprocess, we would merge with Being or the Self. To me, this technique is akin to the self-enquiry technique.

The self-enquiry technique explained in the book No Mind- I am the Self, by David Godman reads as follows:

"According to both Sri Ramana and Sri Lakshmana the "I" thought, rises from the Heart, identifies itself with the body and creates the illusion of an individuaal Self, by identifying itself with all the body's thoughts and perceptions. If one can focus all one's attention on the "I" thought that is, on the inner feeling of "I" or "I am", ignoring all other mental activities, then the 'I " thought will stop identifying with thoughts and perceptions and start to subside into its source, the Heart. When it has completely subsided into the Heart, the illusion of the individual self vanishes.

A careful reading of the above techniques suggests that both Eckhart Tolle and Bhagavan are suggesting holding on to the inner feeling of "I" or the "Inner Body". The difference seems only in the terminology and semantics.

Renunciation and the Householder

When asked by householder devotees for permission to renounce the world, and take up formal Sanyasa, Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharishi would advise them that it is easier for a householder to gain Jnana or liberation, than for a Sanyasi. I found a similar instruction by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, to a person who wanted to renounce the world, and take up Sanyasa.

Q: I am an adopted child. My own father I do not know. My mother died when I was born. My foster father, to please my foster mother, who was childless, adopted me -- almost by accident. He is a simple man -- a truck owner and driver. My mother keeps the house. I am 24 years now. For the last two and a half years I am travelling, restless, seeking. I want to live a good life, a holy life. What am I to do?

M: Go home, take charge of your father's business, look after your parents in their old age. Marry the girl who is waiting for you, be loyal, be simple, be humble. Hide your virtue, live silently. The five senses and the three qualities (gunas) are your eight steps in Yoga. And 'I am' is the Great Reminder (mahamantra). You can learn from them all you need to know. Be attentive, enquire ceaselessly. That is all.

'M' refers to Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Source: I AM THAT - Talks with Nisargadatta Maharaj

Discrimination leads to Detachment - Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

This is an extract from Chapter 23 of the classic "I AM THAT", dialogues with Nisargadatta Maharaj.


Maharaj: You are all drenched for it is raining hard. In my world it is always fine Weather. There is no night or day, no heat or cold. No worries beset me there, nor regrets. My mind is free of thoughts, for there are no desires to slave for.

Questioner: Are there two worlds?

M: Your world is transient, changeful. My world is perfect, changeless. You can tell me what you like about your world -- I shall listen carefully, even with interest, yet not for a moment shall I forget that your world is not, that you are dreaming.

Q: What distinguishes your world from mine?

M: My world has no characteristics by which it can be identified. You can say nothing about it. I am my world. My world is myself. It is complete and perfect. Every impression is erased, every experience -- rejected. I need nothing, not even myself, for myself I cannot lose.

Q: Not even God?

M: All these ideas and distinctions exist in your world; in mine there is nothing of the kind. My world is single and very simple.

Q: Nothing happens there?

M: Whatever happens in your world, only there it has validity and evokes response. In my world nothing happens.

Q: The very fact of your experiencing your own world implies duality inherent in all experience.

M: Verbally -- yes. But your words do not reach me. Mine is a non-verbal world. In your world the unspoken has no existence. In mine -- the words and their contents have no being. In your world nothing stays, in mine -- nothing changes. My world is real, while yours is made of dreams.

Q: Yet we are talking.

M: The talk is in your world. In mine -- there is eternal silence. My silence sings, my emptiness is full, I lack nothing. You cannot know my world until you are there.

Q: It seems as if you alone are in your world.

M: How can you say alone or not alone, when words do not apply? Of course, I am alone for I am all.

Q: Are you ever coming into our world?

M: What is coming and going to me? These again are words. I am. Whence am I to come from and where to go?

Q: Of what use is your world to me?

M: You should consider more closely your own world, examine it critically and, suddenly, one day you will find yourself in mine.

Q: What do we gain by it?

M: You gain nothing. You leave behind what is not your own and find what you have never lost -- your own being.

Source: "I AM THAT", Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

The Power of Humility

The power of humility, which bestows immortality, is the foremost among powers that are hard to attain. Since the only benefit of learning and other similar virtues is the attainment of humility, humility alone is the real ornament of the sages. It is the storehouse of all other virtues and is therefore extolled as the wealth of divine grace. Although it is a characteristic befitting wise people in general, it is especially indispensable for sadhus.

Since attaining greatness is impossible for anyone except by humility, all the disciplines of conduct such as yama and niyama, which are prescribed specifically for aspirants on the spiritual path, have as their aim only the attainment of humility. Humility is indeed the hallmark of the destruction of the ego. Because of this, humility is especially extolled by sadhus themselves as the code of conduct befitting them.

Moreover, for those who are residing at Arunachala, it is indispensable in every way. Arunachala is the sacred place where even the embodiments of God, Brahma, Vishnu and Sakti, humbly subsided. Since it has the power to humble even those who would not be humbled, those who do not humbly subside at Arunachala will surely not attain that redeeming virtue anywhere else. The Supreme Lord, who is the highest of the high, shines unrivalled and unsurpassed only because he remains the humblest of the humble. When the divine virtue of humility is necessary even for the Supreme Lord, who is totally independent, is it necessary to emphasize that it is absolutely indispensable for sadhus who do not have such independence? Therefore, just as in their inner life, in their outer life also sadhus should possess complete and perfect humility. It is not that humility is necessary only for devotees of the Lord; even for the Lord it is the characteristic virtue.

Source : An extract from Ramana Darsanam by Sadhu Natanananda

The Repetitive Nature of the Human Mind

The mind is a mechanism, it has no intelligence. The mind is a bio-computer - how can it have any intelligence? It has skill, but it has no intelligence; it has a functional utility, but it has no awareness. It is a robot; it works well but don't listen to it too much because then you will lose your inner intelligence. Then it is as if you are asking a machine to guide you, lead you. You are asking a machine which has nothing original in it - cannot have. Not a single thought in the mind is ever original, it is always a repetition. Watch: whenever mind says something, see that it is again putting you into a routine. Try to do something new and the mind will have less grip on you.

People who are in some ways creative are always easily transformed into meditators, and people who are uncreative in their life are the most difficult. If you live a repetitive life the mind has too much control over you - you cannot move away from it, you are afraid. Do something new every day. Don't listen to the old routine. In fact, if the mind says something tell it, "This we have been doing always. Now let us do something else." Even small changes... in the way you have always been behaving with your wife - just small changes; in the way you always walk - just small changes; the way you always talk - small changes. And you will find that the mind is losing its grip on you, you are becoming a little freer.

Source: OSHO