Michael James's website

Michael James is well known to people who are interested in the teachings of Bhagavan Ramana Maharishi and Sadhu Om's ( a disciple of Bhagavan). He regularly contributes articles in the Mountain Path, the quarterly of the Ramanashram. One article of his, "The Power of Arunachala" published in the Mountain Path in 1984 is my personal favourite. This entire article is published in David Godman's website.

Michael James has launched his website http://www.happinessofbeing.com/index.html. The content is wonderful and I wish him the very best in this noble endeavour.

The Almighty impels man to act!

The stability of the entire universe, in fact its very survival, is dependent on the operation of the law of virtue. The Lord Himself had declared in the Bhagavad Gita, ``With this (the divine constitution), you nourish the shining ones and may the latter illumine you. Thus nourishing one another, you shall reap the supreme good''. ``God has prescribed this moral law for humanity in the form of the Vedas which are His instructions for a life of purity.

A question that often troubles many is whether God can appear before us. If not, what is the meaning of divine grace. The fallacious answer provided by some in modern times is that the utterances of the ancient wisdom and of the divine mercy, appear to be concocted by a few to deceive the common man. As against this and to convince people of the merits of saints and of the Vedas, an appropriate reply has also been rendered as to what constitutes divine grace.

The beautiful verse in this respect says, ``God's blessings do not mean that He will go about with a staff in His hand as a shepherd does when he drives the animals to a meadow.'' This is to be understood as that He will bestow on us the proper motive for action. Every action we do is stimulated by an urge to perform it. Without such a spur, one does not act at all. The desire and the urge emanate from the Almighty's grace. If that be so, the sceptics will ask, why should not His grace be only for the performance of pious deeds and why should the urge to do evil acts arise?

This apparent riddle has been answered by Sri Bharathi Theertha Mahaswamigal of Sringeri Sarada Peetam. Urge for indulging in wicked deeds also is from the Divinity, he says. Does that mean that God's intention is that we can do such prohibited acts? If so, what sort of God is He is the next query? Does He, who is the object of our veneration and devotion, and whom we consider worthy of worship, goad us to perpetrate them?

The scriptures explain that one has to reap the consequences for the evil deeds done in one's previous birth. Because of this, God does not become responsible and He cannot be blamed. The succession of rebirths, wherein we ought to reap the consequences of our past actions continues from time immemorial. This concept of reaping the consequences of one's previous actions is neither improper nor unscriptural. Hence, those eager to procure God's grace and who want to please Him should abide by the law laid down by Him. He has given us the power of discrimination and it is for us to use it properly. A sword given by a father to his son for use in case of war, should not be instead utilised to chop off his own neck. If he does, is it the fault of the father or the son?

-Sri Bharati Teertha Mahaswamigal

Effort will take you nowhere!

Unless you make tremendous efforts, you will not be convinced that effort will take you nowhere. The self is so self-confident that unless it is totally discouraged it will not give up. Mere verbal conviction is not enough. Hard facts alone can show the absolute nothingness of the self-image.

-Nisargadatta Maharaj-

In giving we receive!

“For it is in giving that we receive.” We often act as if we believe it is in grabbing that we receive. If we don’t take what we want, we are afraid we won’t receive anything at all. Saint Francis is telling us just the opposite: the more we give, the more we receive. Even in my own small life, I find every day that the more I give, the more I have to give on the following day. The more I give on the following day, the more I have to give that evening. So keep on giving – your time, your energy, your talent, your resources. Everything is a trust given to you to be used for the benefit of others. And you will find that the more you give, the more energy and understanding you will have, and the more love you will have for giving even more. This is the very best way to increase your capacity to help and to serve.

By Eknath Easwaran

Law of cause and effect contradicts itself!

Causation means succession in time of events in space, the space being physical or mental. Time, space, causation are mental categories, arising and subsiding with the mind.

Like everything mental, the so-called law of causation contradicts itself. No thing in existence has a particular cause; the entire universe contributes to the existence of even the smallest thing; nothing could be as it is without the universe being what it is. When the source and ground of everything is the only cause of everything, to speak of causality as a universal law is wrong. The universe is not bound by its content, because its potentialities are infinite; besides it is a manifestation, or expression of a principle fundamentally and totally free.

A lot of such activity is going on, because of ignorance. Would people know that nothing can happen unless the entire universe makes it happen, they would achieve much more with less expenditure of energy!

The very urge to achieve is also an expression of the total universe. It merely shows that the energy potential has risen at a particular point. It is the illusion of time that makes you talk of causality. When the past and the future are seen in the timeless now, as parts of a common pattern, the idea of cause-effect loses its validity and creative freedom takes its place.

When I say a thing is without a cause, I mean it can be without a particular cause. Your own mother was needed to give you birth; But you could not have been born without the sun and the earth. Even these could not have caused your birth without your own desire to be born. It is desire that gives birth, that gives name and form. The desirable is imagined and wanted and manifests itself as something tangible or conceivable. Thus is created the world in which we live, our personal world. The real world is beyond the mind's ken; we see it through the net of our desires, divided into pleasure and pain, right and wrong, inner and outer. To see the universe as it is, you must step beyond the net. It is not hard to do so, for the net is full of holes.

Source : I AM THAT, dialogues with Nisargadatta Maharaj

Awareness and mindfulness

Awareness cannot be practiced. There has been some confusion between awareness and mindfulness. They are related, but distinct. Sati, or mindfulness, implies there is action of the mind. We purposely set ourselves to pay attention to our minds. We exert effort. Awareness is different. Awareness is devoid of any action. The mind simply "awares." There is no action here, only a collected and spontaneous awareness that just "sees." Here, mindfulness is the cause, and awareness is the effect. You cannot practice or train the effect. You can only practice something that will cause it. We have to start with mindfulness so that awareness may arise in us.

-Thynn Thynn, in Living Meditation, Living Insight

Nature!

We depend on nature not only for our physical survival. We also need nature to show us the way home, the way out of the prison of our own minds. We got lost in doing, thinking, remembering, anticipating - lost in a maze of complexity and a world of problems.

We have forgotten what rocks, plants, and animals still know. We have forgotten how to be - to be still, to be ourselves, to be where life is: Here and Now.

Whenever you bring your attention to anything natural, anything that has come into existence without human intervention, you step out of the prison of conceptualized thinking and, to some extent, participate in the state of connectedness with Being in which everything natural still exists.

To bring your attention to a stone, a tree, or an animal does not mean to think about it, but simply to perceive it, to hold it in your awareness.

Something of its essence then transmits itself to you. You can sense how still it is, and in doing so the same stillness arises within you. You sense how deeply it rests in Being - completely at one with what it is and where it is. In realizing this, you too come to a place of rest deep within yourself.

Extracts from Stillness Speaks by Eckhart Tolle