Peace on Earth

A teacher of fear can’t bring peace on Earth. We have been trying to do it that way for thousands of years. The person who turns inner violence around, the person who finds peace inside and lives it, is the one who teaches what true peace is. We are waiting for just one teacher.

Byron Katie

Hearing the Truth: Literal Listening

Practice listening to others in the most literal sense, believing exactly what they say without attaching a future to it, and do your best to resist falling into your own interpretations about the information they share with you.

For example, someone might give you a compliment, and you interpret that to mean that the person has ulterior motives. Our interpretations of what we hear people say to us are often far more painful or frightening than what people actually say. We can hurt ourselves with our misconceptions and our thinking for others.

Try trusting that what they say is exactly what they mean: not more, not less. Hear people out.

Catch yourself when you want to finish a sentence for someone, either aloud or in your mind.

Listen. It can be amazing to hear what comes out when we allow others to complete their thoughts without interruption. And when we are busy thinking we know what they are about to say, we often miss what they are actually saying.

You might want to consider these questions:

- What can be threatened if I listen and hear literally?
- Do I interrupt because I don’t want to really know what people have to say?
- Do I interrupt to convince them that I know more than they do?
- Am I attempting to convey an image of self-confidence and control?
- Who would I be without the need to possess those qualities?
- Do I fear appearing unintelligent?
- Would people leave me if I heard them literally and no longer engaged in manipulative games?

-Byron Katie -

The three things we actually do in life

There are only three things we actually do in life: sit, stand or lie horizontal. All the rest is a story.

"The Work always leaves you with less of a story. Who would you be without your story? You never know until you inquire. There is no story that is you or that leads to you. Every story leads away from you. Turn it around, undo it. You are what exists before all stories. You are what remains when the story is understood"

- Byron Katie-

Stress

Stress is an alarm clock that let's you know that you have attached to something that's not true.

Byron Katie

Open Your Own Book

All you have to do is to still the mind. There are two ways to quiet the mind: One is through inquiry, which is suitable to a very few qualified people; and the other is through yoga, which includes concentration, meditation and other practices.

First you need the capacity to discern the real from the unreal, to embrace what is real and to adhere to it. Reject what is unreal and false. Fascination with study, karma , pilgrimages, or dips in the holy waters will not help you. Learning all the Vedas, all the sutras, like a parrot is not going to help you. No gift, austerity or charity is going to help you.

More important than anything is the burning desire for freedom. This alone is enough. If you have this burning desire you will be led to satsang. Satsang means to stay quiet, to still the mind, to bring it back to the center wherever it goes. If you can't do it by yourself then search for a perfected teacher, but do not make any mistake, you see.

When you go shopping you have free choice about what to buy and you have this same freedom in selecting a teacher. In the supermarket you choose, "I don't want this, I don't want that, this is not good, that is not good." You have freedom of choice, no bargain can be struck. Your human life and enlightenment is on one hand, and wasting your life with someone incompetent to liberate you is on the other.

Someone came to see me saying, "I have gone to many teachers without finding enlightenment, and finally I found that my current master himself is not enlightened. He has initiated me and now he is filling me with all kinds of fear. He says that if you leave the teacher you will have to go to hell. I met someone who told me to come here. I am here to be enlightened. My guru is very loving, he is not withholding anything from me; he teaches me with great love. He has taught me all the scriptures so that I know them by heart, but I am missing freedom. I have found that my mind is not free, it is not quiet. But now I know that I am on the right track and in some way I am here to help my teacher. After enlightenment I will go and enlighten my teacher." I have never heard a student resolving to enlighten his teacher before!

If you are bent upon freedom - determined to win freedom in this span of life, this year, this month, today, now - you will have to make a choice. Anything will surface from the mind to sabotage you. Find the best ways to quiet the mind. The instant that the mind is stilled there is meditation. Meditation has to be perennial, permanent, not just sitting for an hour a day. It does not mean chanting the thought, "I have to be free." It means being centered in the Self, which is alone true; all else is false. There must be a very strong understanding in your mind. It is not difficult once you discover the ability to discern what is real from what is unreal. Pleasures of the senses may try to distract you, religions may promise you pleasures in heaven after life, but you will have to abandon all these things. Abandon studying any book; it does not help you. Now you open your own book for the first time. Open your own book and keep quiet.

Papaji - 22 February, 1992

Source: http://www.satsangbhavan.net/main.htm

Silence in spite of Thoughts - Swami Dayananda Saraswati

Preparing the mind

To create a condition of mind that enables you to see the Truth of yourself, you must remove all of your false notions. With love, you have to criticize various opinions and prejudices. There is no other way to obtain clarity, which is the sweetest thing. Whatever denies you a clear vision of the Truth has to be eliminated, along with limiting notions and prejudices about yourself. You condemn yourself, “I am useless, I am worthless”, and it is this self condemnation that stands in the way of knowing what you are.

When a guru comes and tells you that you are sat, cit and ānandā, that you are full and you are the center of creation, that there is nothing beyond you, it is a beautiful thing that you see. Not just beautiful, more than that. “Such a profound Truth am I, I lack nothing. I am all that I seek.” That is a stunning discovery. Who would think that he/she could be all that? “How could I ever imagine that the thing I am seeking in life is myself? By the very fact that I am seeking it, I can’t imagine that it is myself.” The Truth is heard, but not assimilated. For those who seem to follow what the guru says, as long as the guru is talking, everything seems to be clear. You think, “That is true. That is true.” Then the guru goes, and that
ānandā you felt and all that he said, all that also goes. When he comes, ānandā comes; when he goes, ānandā goes. Therefore, you begin to doubt what you understood. “Did the Swami hypnotize me? I think he made me believe that I am wonderful. If I saw that I am wonderful why don’t I feel that I’m wonderful now?” It is that old confusion of knowledge and experience.

If hypnotism could do it, I need not teach like this. I need only tell you from the first day onwards, “You are all happiness, you are all joy, you are all joy, you are all joy…” That is called hypnotism. It doesn’t work. The whole teaching is an unfolding. Just as the artist makes you see beauty in something you generally take as commonplace, so the teacher makes you see yourself. He doesn’t bring his own experience and tell you.

He uses your experience as the basis for teaching and makes you see the truth of that experience. This brings about assimilation in terms of knowing the experience of yourself. So it is not hypnotism. Then if it is knowledge, why does it seem to not stay and serve me? It doesn’t serve me because the mind is still the old mind with all its likes and dislikes which it picked up over many years and which do not just drop away overnight. Previously we were agitated. After listening to the teaching, we again suffer through spells of sadness, of frustration, of sorrow, of anger ---- what we don’t want to happen keeps happening. So the mind keeps saying, “I want to see myself as a full being all the time!” Well, of course, I am always a full being, but I forget. On a day to day basis this knowledge doesn’t seem to serve me, and therefore it seems isolated from my life. What can I do about that?

The silent self

I must come to know that I am the Truth of every thought. Whether it be an agitating thought or a blissful thought, I am the Truth of the thought. A thought has no existence without me. It exists only as a reflection of my own self-effulgent being. It is something that shines after me, as the moon shines after the sun, and therefore a thought cannot disturb me. It depends upon me. If, on the other hand, I am the thought, then whatever is the condition of the mind is my own condition. If the mind is restless, I am restless.

The mind undergoes change. The mind is meant to undergo change. I should see myself in spite of changing thoughts as a person who is all silence, even as gold, in spite of being a chain, is all gold. It need not become a ring in order to take itself as gold. Whether it be a chain or a ring or a bangle, it is pure gold all the time. Once I see that the thought (or the chain) is mithya, apparent, then the apparent cannot cause a problem. Therefore, I can and must see myself, not in the absence of thoughts, but in spite of thoughts. This is called meditation.

What is that unchanging ‘I’ that is to be seen in spite of thoughts? That ‘I’ is silence. That ‘I’ is happiness. That ‘I’ is fullness. That ‘I’ is freedom. It lacks nothing. It is always free, the free, silent self. Now, the silence that is the self is not something that is different from myself. Can I ever gain silence? No. Can I ever regain silence? No,because I am silence, I need not do anything to gain silence. Nor can I regain silence because it is not something that comes and goes. Agitation comes and goes. All those thoughts which seem to destroy silence – they come and go. But silence is something that always remains, before agitation, under agitation, and after agitation. When agitation goes I am silent. Because I am generally agitation, it seems as if silence comes and goes. In England, where it is cloudy all the time, it seems as if the sun comes and goes. In truth, the sun does not come and go. It is the clouds that come and go. The sun always remains. Similarly, here the clouds in my mind fall away and I see myself as silence. They come again and I seem to lose myself. That is all that happens. Silence is never away from me.

In order to learn anything I must be silent, otherwise learning can’t take place. Because I am silent now and then, I have gained some knowledge. But if I try to pick up something when I have a lot of thoughts in my mind, nothing will happen. Even a newspaper column won’t make sense because my mind is occupied. When the mind is preoccupied I can learn nothing new.
Changing thoughts

I know that silence isn’t something unknown to me. It only appears to
come and go because thoughts appear to create agitation. I take thoughts as
myself and become agitated due to mechanical thinking. The deep accumulation of likes and dislikes, of undigested and unassimilated ideas, cause so many conflicts and frustrations that the mind becomes mechanical. It reacts rather than acts. Once a thought comes, and that thought takes me to another thought, and that thought again takes me to another thought, I experience a spell of agitation. In such mindlessly mechanical thinking I take the very thought as myself. I forget myself. Then when the thought goes away I suddenly come back to myself and pick up a moment of silence. Thus silence appears to appear to come and go. But if I analyze it, the problem is not one of discovering silence but one of destroying mechanical thinking.
A thought comes and goes. Before it came there was silence, and after it goes there is silence. Again, after another thought, there is silence.

Between thoughts there is silence. Silence is not something I have to strive
for. Thoughts come and go. Silence always is. And still I miss it. What does this mean? I miss it because I walk upon the thoughts. I am carried away with the thoughts.

I miss the silence when there is a buildup of thoughts, thereby creating a spell. I walk upon the thoughts. I don’t get to the ground. My mind, by some association, jumps from one thought to another. The association can be a simple sound, even a rhyme. The meaning of a word can also bring any number of other words to mind. Just as the monkey leaps and catches the next branch, I also catch the first thought and leave the last one. This is why the mind is called a monkey. I must learn to break the spell of this mechanical travel upon thoughts and discover the silence between two thoughts. This should become a practice for me. I should provide myself with a situation wherein I can develop the knack of being with myself in spite of thinking. This special situation is called meditation.

What is meditation? Am I meditating when I remove all thoughts? Suppose I try to remove all thoughts. Then what happens when a thought comes? Silence is gone. I am going to be in for trouble, because the arrival of a thought becomes a problem. Can I have a mind that will never think? Would I ever ask God, “Oh, God, give me a mind which will never think!” Why should He give me a mind at all, then? The mind is meant to think.

Thinking doesn’t create problems. It is a blessing to be given a mind. To make thought into a nightmare is the silliest thing a person can do. If you think the absence of thought is meditation or seeing funny visions is meditation, I would say that is maditation. Seeing funny visions is not meditation, removing thoughts is not meditation. If I seek to remove all thoughts I only become frustrated and condemn myself as worthless because I can’t do it. In trying to be “spiritual”, I become so frustrated with myself that I become an impossible person to be with. I can’t stand anything going on, because it all creates thoughts in me.

Developing the knack

Any process of thinking is a chain of many and varied thoughts. In
this chain there is always a probability of being carried away on the thoughts, a superficial, reacting, mechanical form of thinking. But now I am going to do something with my mind whereby I shall have many thoughts and, at the same time, I am going to discover the silence between the thoughts.

How do I do this? Instead of having many varied thoughts, I create thoughts that are many in number but are all identical. If the second thought is just like the first thought and the third is just like the second, no captivating thought chain is created. There is no association, no connection. Only thought-period. Thought – period. Thought-period. After the first thought, what is there? Silence. After the second thought? Silence. Third thought? Silence. Fourth thought? Silence. What am I doing now? Learning. Learning what? The knack. Of what? Of being silent. Between what? Thoughts. It’s a knack, just like learning to ride a bicycle or swim.
That single thought may be repeated as one word. What should that word be? Should it be meaningful or meaningless? If I take a meaningless word and start repeating it the mind tells me that I am doing a meaningless thing.

So I should choose a meaningful word, something representing the Whole, the core of creation. Something that is not one of the things in the creation. And because it is a word that is very meaningful to me, the entire teaching can be seen in that one simple word. Any word which you recognize as the name of the Lord, a word which, as you repeat it, makes you appreciate yourself is fine. It should be a very meaningful word in which you are included. The word can be one like Om, a word which includes everything, both in its meaning and in its sound. It has the sounds ‘a’, ‘u’, ‘m’; ‘a’ stands for the waking, physical world; ‘u’ stands for the thought world; ‘m’ stands for the unmanifest. Therefore, the whole creation and the basis thereof are all brought into this one syllable, Om.

The word you chose could be another word. It could be Jesus. Or you can say, “Om namaþ śivāya.” Namaþ means “I salute.” Śiva means “all-auspicious,” that which is all ānandā. Thus, “Unto the Lord I offer my salutations.” Such words form a prayer. If I require that, these words are very useful. So long as the word is meaningful, it can be anything. Om. Om. Om. Is there any connection between them? No, because each is complete. The thought is the same even though it is repeated a
number of times. And the repetition must be there. Why? Why not have only a single Om? Because in order to discover silence between thoughts I must necessarily have many thoughts, but not various thoughts. To have various thoughts means that the thoughts form a chain, and I will not discover silence in a thought-chain. Therefore, I feed myself a single thought many times. I don’t create a chain, but at the same time I see a number of thoughts. The first is not different from the second, and the second is not different from the third. Thus I provide myself with a situation wherein I discover the silence between thoughts. I can’t miss it. When I chant Om, what is next? Silence. Om. Silence. Om. Silence.

And I do this all in order to see that I am silence in spite of having two successive thoughts. This new occupation, called meditation, helps me discover with ease that I am always the same. In spite of all actions performed, perceptions gathered, and thoughts entertained, I remain the same free being that is silent and does no action whatsoever.

Learning is learned ignorance. Unlearning is learning.

-Swami Ramanagiri-

Fasting for Health and Spiritual Development

Everyone agrees that food is necessary for the physical body. However, it is not sufficient to merely ensure that food is nutritious. Even the most nutritious foods-become detrimental to the health if the body cannot assimilate them. Just because you are able to eat food does not mean you can digest it. The digestive process is very complex. Food has to be split up into so many components before it can be absorbed into the body.

A rare video of Swami Sivananda

Found this rare video of Swami Sivananda, Divine Life society in Youtube.

Inner path to Pachiamman Koil, Tiruvannamalai

An excellent map of the entire Inner Path, that shows the six sections as well as some other landmarks along the way.


http://luthar.com/inner-path-to-pachaiamman-koil

An Introduction to the Teachings of J Krishnamurti by David Bohm

My first acquaintance with Krishnamurti's work was in 1959 when I read his book, 'First and Last Freedom'. What particularly aroused my interest was his deep insight into the question of the observer and the observed. This question has long been close to the centre of my own work, as a theoretical physicist, who was primarily interested in the meaning of the quantum theory. In this theory, for the first time in the development of physics, the notion that these two cannot be separated has been put forth as necessary for the understanding of the fundamental laws of matter in general. Because of this, as well as because the book contained many other deep insights, I felt that it was urgent for me to talk with Krishnamurti directly and personally as soon as possible. And when I first met him on one of his visits to London, I was struck by the great ease of communication with him, which was made possible by the intense energy with which he listened and by the freedom from self-protective reservations and barriers with which he responded to what I had to say. As a person who works in science I felt completely at home with this sort of response, because it was in essence of the same quality as that which I had met in these contacts with other scientists with whom there had been a very close meeting of minds. And here, I think especially of Einstein who showed a similar intensity and absence of barrier in a number of discussions that took place between him and me. After this, I began to meet Krishnamurti regularly and to discuss with him whenever he came to London.

We began an association which has since then become closer as I became interested in the schools, which were set up through his initiative. In these discussions, we went quite deeply into the many questions which concerned me in my scientific work. We probed into the nature of space and time, and of the universal, both with regard to external nature and with regard to the mind. But then, we went on to consider the general disorder and confusion that pervades the consciousness of mankind. It is here that I encountered what I feel to be Krishnamurti's major discovery. What he was seriously proposing is that all this disorder, which is the root cause of such widespread sorrow and misery, and which prevents human beings from properly working together, has its root in the fact that we are ignorant of the general nature of our own processes of thought. Or to put it differently it may be said that we do not see what is actually happening, when we are engaged in the activity of thinking. Through close attention to and observation of this activity of thought, Krishnamurti feels that he directly perceives that thought is a material process, which is going on inside of the human being in the brain and nervous system as a whole.

Ordinarily, we tend to be aware mainly of the content of this thought rather than how it actually takes place. One can illustrate this point by considering what happens when one is reading a book. Usually, one is attentive almost entirely to the meaning of what is being read. However, one can also be aware of the book itself, of its constitution as made up out of pages that can be turned, of the printed words and of the ink, of the fabric of the paper, etc. Similarly, we may be aware of the actual structure and function of the process of thought, and not merely its content.

How can such an awareness come about? Krishnamurti proposes that this requires what he calls meditation. Now the word meditation has been given a wide range of different and even contradictory meanings, many of them involving rather superficial kinds of mysticism. Krishnamurti has in mind a definite and clear notion when he uses this word. One can obtain a valuable indication of this meaning by considering the derivation of the word. (The roots of words, in conjunction with their present generally accepted meanings often yield surprising insight into their deeper meanings.) The English word meditation is base on the Latin root "med" which is, "to measure." The present meaning of the word is "to reflect," "to ponder" (i.e. to weigh or measure), and "to give close attention." Similarly the Sanskrit word for meditation, which is dhyana, is closely related to "dhyati," meaning "to reflect." So, at this rate, to meditate would be, "to ponder, to reflect, while giving close attention to what is actually going on as one does so."

This is perhaps what Krishnamurti means by the beginning of meditation. That is to say, one gives close attention to all that is happening in conjunction with the actual activity of thought, which is the underlying source of the general disorder. One does this without choice, without criticism, without acceptance or rejection of what is going on. And all of this takes place along with reflections on the meaning of what one is learning about the activity of thought. (It is perhaps rather like reading a book in which the pages have been scrambled up, and being intensely aware of this disorder, rather than just "trying to make sense" of the confused content that arises when on just accepts the pages as they happen to come.)

Krishnamurti has observed that the very act of meditation will, in itself, bring order to the activity of thought without the intervention of will, choice, decision, or any other action of the "thinker." As such order comes, the noise and chaos which are the usual background of our consciousness die out, and the mind becomes generally silent. (Thought arises only when needed for some genuinely valid purpose, and then stops, until needed again.)

In this silence, Krishnamurti says that something new and creative happens, something that cannot be conveyed in words, but that is of extraordinary significance for the whole of life. So he does not attempt to communicate this verbally, but rather, he asks those who are interested that they explore the question of meditation directly for themselves, through actual attention to the nature of thought.

Without attempting to probe into this deeper meaning of meditation, one can however say that meditation, in Krishnamurti's sense of the word, can bring order to our overall mental activity, and this may be a key factor in bringing about an end to the sorrow, the misery, the chaos and confusion, that have, over the ages, been the lot of mankind, and that are still generally continuing without visible prospect of fundamental change, for the foreseeable future.

Krishnamurti's work is permeated by what may be called the essence of this scientific approach, when this is considered in its very highest and purest form. Thus, he begins from a fact, this fact about the nature of our thought processes. This fact is established through close attention, involving careful listening to the process of consciousness, and observing it assiduously. In this, one is constantly learning, and out of this learning comes insight, into the overall or general nature of the process of thought. This insight is then tested. First, one sees whether it holds together in a rational order. And then one sees whether it leads to order and coherence, on what flows out of it in life as a whole.

Krishnamurti constantly emphasizes that he is in no sense an authority. He has made certain discoveries, and he is simply doing his best to make these discoveries accessible to all those who are able to listen. His work does not contain a body of doctrine, nor does he offer techniques or methods, for obtaining a silent mind. He is not aiming to set up any new system of religious belief. Rather, it is up to each human being to see if he can discover for himself that to which Krishnamurti is calling attention, and to go on from there to make new discoveries on his own.

It is clear then that an introduction, such as this, can at best show how Krishnamurti's work has been seen by a particular person, a scientist, such as myself. To see in full what Krishnamurti means, it is necessary, of course, to go on and to read what he actually says, with that quality of attention to the totality of one's responses, inward and outward, which we have been discussing here.

Jokes on the global financial recession

A director decided to award a prize of Rs.1000 for the best idea forsaving the company money during the recession. It was won by a youngexecutive who suggested reducing the prize money to Rs. 100.

Q: With the current market turmoil, what's the easiest way to make asmall fortune?

A: Start off with a large one.

Q: What's the difference between an investment banker and a large pizza?

A: A large pizza can feed a family of four.

Q: Why have Dubai real estate agents stopped looking out of the windowin the morning?

A: Because otherwise they'd have nothing to do in the afternoon.

Q What’s the difference between a bond and a bond trader?

A. A bond matures.

Q. Did you hear Goldman Sachs has a new cafeteria?

A. It’s called the Warren buffet.

Q: What’s the Capital of Iceland?

A: About 70 cents.

A concerned customer asked his stock broker if the recent marketdecline and volatility worried him.The broker told him that he has been sleeping like a baby.“Really?!?” replied the customer.“Absolutely,” said the broker,“I sleep for about an hour, wake up, and then cry for about an hour.”

Recession Bumper Sticker- The recession is worse than a divorce. You lose half your fortune andstill have your wife.

The Difference between Communism & CapitalismIn communism we nationalize the banks and then push them tobankruptcy. In capitalism we push the bank to bankruptcy and thennationalize them.

A priest, a rabbi, and a mortgage broker were all caught in ashipwreck. Sharks were soon circling around. The sharks eat thepriest. The rabbi starts praying fervently, but to no avail, as thesharks eat him as well. The mortgage broker is really getting worried,as a shark is coming for him. But instead the shark puts him on itsback, carries him to shore, and lets him off. The mortgage brokerasks, “How come you didn’t eat me too?” And the shark replied,“Professional Courtesy!”

The spiritual state of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa

While talking about his spiritual state, Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa said, "The Divine Mother has put me in a state of a devotee. She has also put me in a state of a 'vijnani'. That's why I indulge in light-hearted fun with youngsters like Rakhal (Swami Brahmananda). Had She placed in the state of a 'Jnani' it would not be possible."

-Extract from Page 184-185 of Reminiscences of Swami Brahmananda - The Mind-Born son of Sri Ramakrishna.

Importance of the mind dwelling on the sense 'I am'

The very fact of observation alters the observer and the observed. After all, what prevents the insight into one's true nature is the weakness and obtuseness of the mind and its tendency to skip the subtle and focus on the gross only. When you follow my advice and try to keep your mind on the notion of 'I am' only, you become fully aware of your mind and its vagaries. Awareness, being lucid harmony (sattva) in action, dissolves dullness and quietens the restlessness of the mind and gently, but steadily changes its very substance. This change need not be spectacular; it may be hardly noticeable; yet it is a deep and fundamental shift from darkness to light, from inadvertence to awareness.

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Essence of saintliness

The essence of saintliness is total acceptance of the present moment, harmony with things as they happen. A saint does not want things to be different from what they are; he knows that, considering all factors, they are unavoidable. He is friendly with the inevitable and,. therefore, does not suffer. Pain he may know, but it does not shatter him.

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

“If a man hasn’t discovered something that he will die for, he isn’t fit to live.”

-Martin Luther King, Jr.