(The fourth Robert Adams principle to be discussed soon).

Sri Aurobindo

“O Misfortune, blessed be thou,

for through thee I have seen

the face of my Lover.“

]]> http://hanumanpurple.wordpress.com/2010/07/15/10-bullshi-or-cowshi/feed/ 0 hanumanpurple aurobindo http://hanumanpurple.wordpress.com/2010/07/05/9-a-meditation-on-the-egolessness-of-all-things/ http://hanumanpurple.wordpress.com/2010/07/05/9-a-meditation-on-the-egolessness-of-all-things/#comments Mon, 05 Jul 2010 14:49:30 +0000 hanumanpurple http://hanumanpurple.wordpress.com/?p=92 ]]> The third principle that Robert Adams talks about in his Collected Works is the notion of The Egolessness of All Things.  Again he recommends that we explore this notion deeply, reflect upon it, meditate on it and understand it, so that it may be utilised as a tool to destroy our mind/ego constructs…

I feel and fully understand the egolessness of all things.  Everything, everything is devoid of ego.  The mineral kingdom, the plant kingdom, the animal kingdom and the human realm, everything is egoless.  All these things are seen simply as objects going about their business according to their nature.  When reflected upon, this helps us to understand the equality and unity of all beings by strengthening the feeling of simply observing, and not directly engaging – particularly in times of conflict;  to be aware of the egolessness of all things at these times somehow removes us from the sphere of emotional activity and entanglement, we no longer feel threatened or fearful or angry or unpleasant in any way because we now understand that all things are simply acting out their nature, and this has nothing to do with us.

To feel the egolessness of all things; a gap is created between the unreal, and that which we are.  From that gap, a tenderness towards all things emerges – a tree, a table, a person – no matter what they are or how they behave, they no longer have direct contact with us, yet we become deeply connected to them at the core, in truth.  To feel and understand this is a beautiful thing – a very real feeling of love towards all that is observed.

Upasani Baba – Be as it may…

Nothing exists.  I was never born, i do not persist, and i will never die.  I feel and fully understand this – that i am the unchanging, i cannot be harmed or be destroyed.  I am neither existent nor non-existent.  What i am in reality – beyond the illusion of this mind, body and world; cannot be described.  Words or thoughts cannot touch that which i am.  If what i am could be described in any way, the description would not be real or true.  The finite cannot describe the infinite.  I stand apart from this world, behind the facade, as reality.  I was never born, and i will not, ever, die.  I am the space between the atoms.  I am reality.  Unreality never existed, all that is seen with these eyes is a manifestation of the mind, and as the mind is false – it has no existence; the world is also false – it never existed.  The reality of the world is only apparent.  It is known as Illusion – meaning it really is just that – an illusion, a magic trick, IT IS NOT REAL!  As the physical eyes see, so the physical world is.  As the spirit feels and understands, so the falsehood becomes more obvious, and the mind grows weaker – it starts to lose its tenacious grip, and the soul power in my heart shines forth with growing intensity.  Eventually to obliterate the mind – the cause of all troubles, to be left in the only real and true state of bliss, nirvana, incomprehensible unending happiness, that which cannot be described.  Words are wholly inadequate to describe such a feeling, but they have a value of their own in pointing the way to that you are – beyond the mind, beyond the body, beyond the world, beyond the universe, beyond time, beyond all notions of creation, God, religion, family, beyond wars and famine, beyond even the notion of a beyond.  Free of all concepts, i cling to nothing, nothing clings to me, i am free, open, space, all-encompassing ever-expanding Love.  Nothing harms me, nothing ends me, i have always been, and i shall forever be.

Om Shanti Shanti Shanti.

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj – The Natural Way

The First Principle is that everything in this world is merely a manifestation of your mind.  He recommends exploring this sentence deeply at every given opportunity, especially just after waking up in the morning, and to really put your heart and soul into feeling and understanding this to be Truth.  So, to begin the meditation/reflection/contemplation…

i feel, understand and fully comprehend the fact that everything, everything, in this world is a manifestation or projection of my mind.  The ground i walk upon, the touch on the soles of my feet, the feelings of my leg muscles, the air that i breathe, the sky, birds and trees, everything, is a manifestation of my mind.  This ‘waking’ reality is actually just another dream.  To wake from it, i must truly feel, understand and comprehend this.  Yet the world feels sooo real!  But then, how real does a dream seem to me in the depths of sleep?  This waking dream is just the same.  It comes from, it is projected by, the mind.  I AM NOT THE MIND!  i am not this individual mind – a collection of thoughts about the past and future, problems and worries, desires and fears, nor am i the universal/collective mind – that which operates to make everything appear so real.  What is the mind?  Where does it come from?  It is an apparition, a vehicle which infuses itself with a (‘my’) personality, emotion, false judgements based on apparent experiences.  i am not the mind.  Where does its power lie?  In the mistaken belief that this individual, this me, exists as a separate individual, an entity with its own experiences and beliefs.  This is false.  I never existed.  All that is projected is but a false reality, a dream, a mirage in the desert.  What is this powerful force known as ‘mind’ and from where does it arise?  It comes from ‘me’.  But what is this ‘me’?  is it ‘I’?  The same ‘I’, the same presence that is there during waking, dream and deep sleep states?  Always there in the background, undisturbed, unchanging.  Does this ‘I’ change?  i follow this ‘I’ – the source of the mind, i follow it inwards, backwards, ever deeper to the Source.  Deeper and deeper i chase this feeling, onwards and onwards till it stops running.  Where is the ‘I’ now? i search, and ‘I’ is nowhere to be found!  Everything is now dissolved into peace, peace, peace.  Space, empty and open, utmost contentment, all-encompassing, beautiful and radiant Peace.

‘I’ is falsehood.  The source of mind – the cause of all my ‘troubles’, does not exist.  There is no cause.  There is no reason for being that which i am.  i was never born, i will never die.  i do not even prevail or persist.  It just is.  In this moment, now.  There are no boundaries of time to be obeyed or subjected to.

Everything, everything is projected by the mind, and i am not this.

Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi – Sage of Silence

Observing these phenomena from a ‘modern scientific’ perspective (bearing in mind that much of this was discovered via the spiritual route during vedic times – thousands of years ago): all that we are and all that we see in the physical reality is essentially emptiness, space, with a few atoms thrown in (the matter aspect).  If we had the eyes to see, we would, but our relatively crude visual apparatus does not possess the acuity to see our world from an atomic perspective, our eyes are generally adapted to our physical world.  Now, i say generally, because with correct training and effort, people are able to perceive things which are not actually visually apparent – such as different types of energy vibrations, auras, past-life interactions, emotionally related colour arrangements, facets of illness and many other things; maybe even outside of time – the past, the future and so on.

Surely this in itself is proof of the fact that we are not what we seem to be!  The ability to see the more subtle aspects of the physical universe has to be verification that we are actually a whole lot different from what we perceive.

What we are, is in fact the whole.  What we see, and what we believe ourselves to be, is a minute aspect of this whole. And the whole is all there is, otherwise known as Love.

Thankyou for your patience.  To be continued…

Mooji – Beauty personified.

To begin at the beginning, man can never ‘find’ happiness in the world, or to put it another way, he can never find any lasting happiness in the world, because the world is not real.

OK, so it feels real enough, we all experience the dance of pain and pleasure, pleasure and pain…but the fact is, everything about this world that we live in is undeniably restricted by the laws of time and space. Modern man can scarcely think outside of these restrictions, and so his thinking becomes very limited also; ” Oh, I was born on such and such a time and date, and I can expect to live for this many years etc etc…”
Fair enough, these are very real notions, whatever is born, must die etc. But the Truth is, we were never born, and we will never die. All that we witness is just a mere apparition, our real nature is timeless and beyond space, thought and description. The world, us, our thoughts, emotions, feelings, doubts, concerns in fact everything that we see as part of our lives, all begin with a single thought. If all of our notions are traced back into ourselves, we can find that thought. A constant companion, creator of worlds, it gives us presence, identity and hides our real nature, it cloaks reality in the veil of consciousness, and misguides us unto death. That thought is I AM.

To reside in that realm of the I AM, to understand the witness state of our being at a human level, and then to go on even further to what is witnessing this I AM, this is where True Happiness is to be found. This is what we really are. This is where the puny concepts of time and space, desires or fears have no place. This is home.

Thankyou for your patience. To be continued…

OK, I have been burning the candles at both ends today, so i’ll make this short…

The ego interrupts…God listens.

Kindly meditate on this in your silence today, and we shall explore the notion further, tomorrow. Goodnight and as always…

Thank you for your patience. To be continued…

Yesterday evening, it was pointed out to me that there was rather a large gap between post number 1) Why do you want to be Happy? ; and post number 2) The world feels Real enough to me!!!  So, today, i thought i might expand a little on some of the concepts relating to yesterday’s topic – Consciousness, and thereby ‘fill the gap’ so to speak…

In my experience, people, and dare i say ‘Seekers’ in particular, tend to get rather confused about the term “Consciousness.” This in turn gives rise to all manner of nasty habits. The word itself loses its meaning and gets thrown around willy-nilly-vanilly until a point when you really don’t know what your talking about, or until the point when the ego is satisfied that whoever you’re talking too, has been given enough trash to believe that you really are some high and mighty “spiritual seeker”.

Phew!!

Now that i’ve created an insurmountable hurdle for myself, i can begin.

To begin right at the beginning, i would like you to try and remove all confusion, understanding or misunderstanding, faith, belief, opinions and frustrations from your system. Go for it, don’t worry, i’ll be waiting for you when you return. So if you need to go and make a Cup Of Tea, punch a pillow, tend to your tomatoe plants, or smoke something, by all means do so…

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OK, back already? Good, now let’s begin…

A Great Master once told me that Consciousness is an organism. An organism that serves God. Now if you have truly left all of your prior misconceptions at the doorstep, then i do not doubt for a moment that you will have had an immediate and intuitive, and therefore True understanding of the nature of Consciousness just by reading the top two lines of this paragraph. But stick around anyway, it could be fun…  :0

If you are still not too sure about Consciousness – Don’t Paniiiic!!! I intend to write today in a lighter manner, because i would very much like to clear up any confusion for you, once and for all. But do leave a “comment” if there is anything you would like me to explain again – the very nature of you and me is, after all, infinite patience!!!

I just have to go and have my evening meal, but as a nice robot once said “I’ll be back!“

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Mmmm, that was delicious. Thankyou

So, Consciousness is an organism. An organism that serves God. Now one could argue that that sounds just like any other organism on this planet, we are always told that Service to Man is Service to God, and that as humans this is our duty (sheesh, i really dislike that word!!! nevermind – it’s just a personal thing), incidentally, if you don’t believe in God, try substituting that word for something else, liked baked-potatoes, it really makes no difference, it really is just a word!!! In the realms of Advaita, language and words are (necessarily) limited, what is Unlimited, is the actualization of the words, the direct ‘experience‘, for want of another…er…word… (see what i mean?!?)

OK, Consciousness, Consciousness, Consciousness, mmmm, let’s try a different road…OK, i think this may just about work…

Imagine you are a chicken. No really, just try it for a second…

OK? – so now you are a chicken. Before long, the time comes when you have to lay an egg. So go on then, lay an egg…

no don’t worry, i’m not looking…

OK – you done? Good.

Now, you watch the egg, and before long, the egg hatches into a cute little easter bunny and …no wait, got that bit wrong, hang on…

Right, got it…

Now you watch the egg, and before long, the egg hatches into a cute little fluffy yellow chick, and you look upon it and go “Aaaaaah, isn’t she cute!” etc etc, now this is the important bit – you – a chicken, also think – THAT’S PART OF ME THAT IS…! (by all means, take some time at this point to fully absorb this point, because the next bit is equally, if not more important…

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As you – a chicken, watch this beautiful creation of yours, grow and develop into a little chicklet, and then into a naughty little teenaged chick with ASBO-worthy profanities coming out of its beak, you suddenly start seeing that this little chick is now becoming involved in a beautiful world of its own…you meet its new friends from the nursery-coop, and then shed a tear as you drop her off on her first day at secondary-coop, and before long, you are a proud and happy mummy chicken attending the graduation ceremony of your beautiful chick which is now a fully fledged chicken!!!

Just think, all that from a little ping-pong ball sized bit of protein.

Right. Now let’s try this…

That little ping-pong ball sized bit of protein is all of the known (and unknown – but we’ll not go into that right now…) universe. Everything that you can perceive of with the senses, memory, emotions, the world, the universe, and everything. It grows and changes, it responds automatically to various stimuli according to the laws of Nature, and it basically contains everything the mind can ever conceive.

And you – a chicken, and the parent of the little chick, is the Great Unmanifest, or God, or Shiva or any other word.

I would like to ask you to take a moment to absorb what you have just read, then re-read it, then re-re-read it, and then apply it to yesterday’s blog entry, paying particular attention to Sri Aurobindo’s quote at the bottom of the page.

Just one last thing to say, if you need a different take on any of these topics, then you may be interested to know that as soon as i have figured out what all the buttons mean on this blog dashboard, i shall place a reading list on the blog, of books that have helped me along the way (man, i luuuurve books!). However, i would like to emphasise one very important point. And i cannot emphasise this enough…

WORDS ARE ONLY POINTERS!

THEY ARE not A SUBSTITUTE FOR REALITY.

THEY ARE USEFUL IF, AND ONLY IF, YOU ARE FULLY PREPARED TO INVESTIGATE, QUESTION, UNDERSTAND, TURN THEM INSIDE-OUT AND UPSIDE DOWN, AND GO DEEP DEEPER DEEPEST INTO THE PLACES WHERE NO-ONE EVER WANTS TO GO BECAUSE OF CONCEPTUAL FEAR, LAZINESS, APATHY OR BECAUSE IT’S “NOT EASY”.

THEN, AND ONLY THEN, DO YOU HAVE ANY RIGHT TO SPEAK OF THE NATURE OF REALITY – AND THEN ONLY BECAUSE YOU HAVE DIRECT PERMISSION TO DO SO.

UNTIL THAT POINT, AND IT MOST DEFINITELY IS “UNTIL” – IT IS SOOOOO MUCH EASIER TO SIMPLY REMAIN SILENT.

Please Please Please do not turn into a pretentious “empty kettle”, prattling on and on about “God says this”, “God says that” and pretending you know what you are talking about! – it only enhances the suffering of this beautiful world. Maybe now, a few of you may see why.

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To end todays blog, i would like to leave you with an image from one of The Great Artists, whose images, for me personally are truly TIMELESSNESS itself. And if he would oblige me a small paraphrase…

“its only lines on a screen folks!“

And this is because – you are on drugs. No seriously, you are simply intoxicated with the most powerful drug created by ‘man’.  It is called Consciousness, but for reasons of simplicity, we shall call it Consciousness.

Consciousness is a seed from which the entire universe is created. If you want to know who you are in Reality, you must go beyond Consciousness to find that you yourself have created Consciousness, and that the Real you is…well, we shall see.

But what is Consciousness, I mean, really?

Ahhh – if only i knew…well, i’ll give it my best shot. In Reality, the only thing that actually is, is the unknowable – cool eh? Now, the Great Unknowable, or God, Love, Happiness, Robert Crumb etc – for the purposes of this blog, we shall call the Great Unknowable the Unmanifested.  Now, the Unmanifested, in order to become known unto itself, has to objectify itself, in other words, it is not self-aware in the Original State, ie it remains the full potentiality, without form, beyond time and Absolutely absolute. In this Unmanifested state, there is no such thing as you, or I, or the world, or objects, or opinions – you get the picture…

So, the Unmanifested is that which simply is, prior to time itself, i have heard it described as “The birth of all births, and the death of all deaths” – how beautiful! Now, for no reason whatsoever, absolutely spontaneously, the Unmanifested becomes self-aware, in other words, the notion “I AM” arises, or “I IS” – if you prefer. As this notion arises, immediately, the process of objectivisation begins. By objectivisation, i mean the process of seeing things in duality, ie as ‘you’ and a separate ‘me’. Now, in order to function with this dualistic attitude, the Unmanifest (now having become self-aware and so beginning the process of manifestation and hence duality) needs a tool, yep you heard it right, A TOOL. And to bring us back to the main theme of todays blog, that tool is, you guessed it, Consciousness!

Oh dear, i’ve just accidentally gone and pressed a button, and the font’s gone funny, i have no idea how to change it back, so apologies if you find this gargantuan lettering a bit tooo much, oooooo! maybe if you put yourself about 3 foot away from the screen, it might feel ok, but then how would you scroll down to read the rest of this blog? Oh well, anyway, to continue…

Ummm – hey wow – it just spontaneously changed back!!! WOW – this blogging thing is well cool!!!

Anyway, where were we, or rather where are we? ah yes…Consciousness is a tool for the Unmanifested to objectify itself and therefore, if you like, to enjoy its very own nature!

In some cultures, this very process is known as “Lila”, or The Divine Play. Now it just so happens that i typed in “Lila” into Wikipedia for a proper Sanskrit translation for you lucky readers (all 4 of you!) and immediately came across this beautiful quote from the Great Indian Master – Sri Aurobindo, He refers to ‘Brahman’ which is essentially the Sanskrit term for the Unmanifest…

“Brahman is full of all perfections. And to say that Brahman has some purpose in creating the world will mean that it wants to attain through the process of creation something which it has not. And that is impossible. Hence, there can be no purpose of Brahman in creating the world. The world is a mere spontaneous creation of Brahman. It is a Lila, or sport, of Brahman. It is created out of Bliss, by Bliss and for Bliss. Lila indicates a spontaneous sportive activity of Brahman as distinguished from a self-conscious volitional effort. The concept of Lila signifies freedom as distinguished from necessity.”

And I feel that this is as good a place as any to end this particular blog, but don’t worry, if it is God’s Will, or Cosmic Law if you prefer(a fairly decent topic to talk about in its own right, in my humble understanding), i may come along and place a few more words later today, if not, certainly tomorrow, ok?, Ummm… Hello?…  Is there anybody out there?…

Thankyou for your patience. To be continued…

i) Is it indeed possible?

ii) What is Happiness anyway??

iii) Assuming there is such a thing, how do I get it???

OK, so now that we’ve got the fundamentals sorted, lets proceed.  Happiness is possible, and i’m not talking about the happiness that has an opposite – in sadness or despair, i mean REAL Happiness, that has no antidote, is deep and strong enough to even outlast the human-body-lifespan.

To jump to point iii) there is simply no way to get Happiness.  So those of you who are looking for a quick fix, you may be better off with a dose of corrie or emmerdale, (NB – avoid Eastenders AT ALL COSTS!!! – it will sap your energy and your will to live quicker than the time it takes to destroy an Amazonian rainforest)…

The reason i say this is because Happiness is not a thing. A thing, an object;  can be acquired. True Happiness is not, never was, and in no way shape or form ever will be, just mere fodder for the acquisitive nature of (so-called) modern man.

Secondly, a more fundamental reason why the question “how do i get Happiness” is so incredibly absurd, is because, and this may require a 3 second delay to get your head around it…you cannot get Happiness – because you are it already. Remove all doubt from your consciousness (if necessary take 5 seconds, oh heck even 5 hours…).  Please be assured, that your true fundamental nature, without all the chasing money, drugs (including booze and Clarityn), women, men and control, is simply HAPPINESS   !

To expand on this, let’s reflect for a moment on why modern man seeks Happiness in the world. Now without coming across as all alarmingly deep and meaningful, modern man seeks Happiness because he is simply unhappy!  Ahhh – but you just said that man cannot get Happiness because Happiness is his very nature – quite so, but i’m talking about Happiness, with an capital ‘H’, not the mere fleeting happiness (note small ‘h’) which disappears as soon as you’ve parked the brand new £150,000 Aston in the garage. – This kind of happiness is not even worth having, in my humble understanding, because it doesn’t last. What’s the point in busting your skull for a fleeting moment of plastic happiness that vanishes the next time your plans get frustrated?

Basically, man can never ‘find’ Happiness in the world, and this is where it does start to get a bit deep…because the world is not Real.

Thankyou for your patience. To be continued…