Abide as the Self ◦ Ramana Maharshi

A Life Beyond Words

Do people really believe in the superstitious notion that your words create your experience of life? Only at the most superficial material levels I would say you could train your conscious brain to bring positive autosuggestion to the subconscious, to satisfy small interests and desires. On deeper levels however it is feelings and imagination that bring all thought forms into being, which then become outward pronouncements, habits and creative manifestations. Only in transcending the illusion of identification with thinking mind does one begin to have mastery over it's negative conditioning and thus over one's individual creation.

This is what I think the Buddha meant when saying that "one is the sum total of all that one has thought", yet from the perspective that the thinking verbalizing self is not the True Reality. When the deeper mind like a still lake clearly reflects the language of the Heart, then only are the extrovert capacities of the individual endowed with right minded thoughts, ideas and actions... the poetic and artistic expression that includes yet transcends the words and images that articulate it.

One can speak very positive words and yet feel and act totally different behind the scenes. A winning exterior does NOT ensure a happy and prosperous life. The harder and more compulsively you try "thinking the right thoughts" the more resistance is aroused from a repressed shadow part of the mind.

For all the above reasons, I believe that our use of words and language has but a superficial power and significance. One must discontinue the habit of giving them more importance than they are worth.

In Pure Being, Feeling & Seeing,

JD Zenie

The Sun

                            Happy Sun Day

becoming enlightened

understanding
finding the sense behind the chaos
attaining a new level of insight
having an intellectual breakthrough
getting to the heart of the matter
realizing the truth

experiencing greatness

achieving prominence
being singled out for notice
having a personal moment of glory
setting an outstanding example
shining forth brilliantly
demonstrating distinction
becoming the center of attention

feeling vitality

becoming radiantly energized
bursting with enthusiasm
experiencing joy
feeling invigorated
getting charged up
enjoying great health

having assurance

feeling free and expansive
honoring your true self
knowing you can succeed
being confident
believing in your worth
trusting your abilities
forgiving yourself

OPPOSING CARDS: Some Possibilities

• Moon - confusion, disorientation, illusion
• Eight of Cups - weariness
• Six of Swords - depressed, listless
• Five of Pentacles - being rundown, tired

REINFORCING CARDS: Some Possibilities

• Tower - enlightenment, revelation
• World - accomplishment, great achievement
• Two of Wands - personal power, vitality, brilliance
• Six of Wands - acclaim, prominence

DESCRIPTION Brilliant. Radiant. Sparkling. So many of our words reflect (!) the power and glory of light. When we turn on the light in a room, we illuminate it so that all the dark corners are visible. When we turn on the light in our minds, we are enlightened. We see clearly and understand the truth. Both within and without, the energy of light expands our limits and makes us shine.  Throughout history, people have honored the Sun as the source of light and warmth. In the myths of many cultures, the Sun is a prominent god - full of vigor and courage. He is the vital energy center that makes life on earth possible. In the tarot the Sun also symbolizes vitality and splendor. The Sun is definitely not a meek and retiring card. In readings, you will understand Card 19 if you imagine yourself to be a Sun God. How do you think and feel? You have total confidence in yourself. You are not cocky, but profoundly sure of your power. You have unlimited energy and glow with health. You have a greatness about you and stand out brilliantly. Finally, you see and understand all that is happening within your sphere. When you see this card, know that you will be successful at all you undertake. Now is the time to let your light shine.

http://www.learntarot.com/maj19.htm

How Overthinking Can Eclipse Living

Some thinking is very necessary and accurate, yet when losing oneself in the thought process the natural very primal impetus to act upon or engage with immediate surroundings is often lost. Energy given to processing thought is energy taken away from daily living in/through the physical body, senses and earthly surroundings. The capacity and energy for efficient work is lessened as the spontaneous enthusiastic impulse to act is compromised and exchanged for the rather deadening world of mental abstraction.

 One must be able to use the mind as an ally, to use thought as a practical tool, without drowning in an ocean of psychic mental phenomena. The key is rembembering to forget everything and begin over again, opening to the ever-changing present moment with a fresh beginners mind, and allowing whatever thoughts that arise to just flow and guide me spontaneously in the form of temporary messages or signs. Cling to none of it and yet know that it is all there to affirm the importance of what I am living, doing, having and experiencing right now.

Occasionally I can allow myself to read over notes to refresh something in my mind, whenever useful and possible in the present, but not to rely on this too heavily nor to get stuck there. Do not stay in the world of ideation and mental abstraction for very long... BE ready to move forward with whatever I already know, like an actor about to go on stage to recite his lines, putting on a planned yet spontaneous performance.

JD Zenie

Natural Wonder

Zen Master Murphy

Tuning In

by Ken Russell

Tuning in is a very simple process, with profound results. Tuning in connects you with your feelings. Your feelings function as a gauge of how things are going for you. Being in touch with your feelings is of the utmost importance since they give a far more accurate rendering of what is happening in your life than your mind does. Unfortunately, this culture has overdeveloped the mind to the extreme, and our mental processes tend to obscure rather than reflect what is happening in our lives.

Tuning in is also a bridge to the deeper states of consciousness. As it becomes easier to remain in the nonverbal state of just feeling your feelings, and you become familiar with yourself in a nonverbal way, you are able to contact deeper levels of your being. Eventually, you will move beyond all feelings and thoughts, and you will begin to find yourself in touch with something wondrous. Tuning in is a major aid on the way.

Tuning in is also a potent form of meditation that helps still the mind. Each time you successfully tune in, you deny the mind its control of your life. Tuning in is profoundly anti-mind; it erodes the very foundations of the mind's activities. Normally, we avoid the feeling of pain. Through tuning in, you learn to be with pain and accept it, and most importantly, not be thrown into unconsciousness by it. Once you have done this, you will begin to experience an amazing degree of freedom from your programming. For instance, in I Am That, Maharaj notes that the "acceptance of pain takes you much deeper than pleasure does. The personal self by its very nature is constantly pursuing pleasure and avoiding pain. The ending of this pattern is the ending of the self." By "the ending of the self," he means not physical death but freedom from the tyranny of your conditioning, which loses its power over you.

Tuning in is necessary because we have developed the ability to rationalize or justify almost anything we might want to do or believe. Without the accurate reflection of our feelings, we will fall prey to the mind, and the mind has an agenda of its own that is almost always not in our best interests. Mind is an agent of society, something that was added to our being. Mind developed as we grew up, and then it took control over us. It is a cancer, choking out our feelings and siphoning off our energy into endless mental gyrations. These activities of the mind create so much of the dissatisfaction and unhappiness we experience in our lives.

The mind is an addition to our being, not intrinsic to it. To determine the truth of this for yourself, just watch a newborn baby. The baby will be full of feelings and vitality. It has no thoughts to dampen its feelings and vitality because it has no words yet. Feelings obviously precede words and thoughts. Feelings are more elemental than words, but we are socialized and educated in the ways of the mind and have lost this valuable connection. We are so acclimated to functioning from our minds that we have little awareness of this loss. Indeed, most people mistake thoughts for feelings or allow the overlay of thoughts to conceal or mislabel what they may actually feel. And most of us have no awareness of this loss except perhaps a sense that something is missing in our lives.

Almost all of my students find it far easier to meditate than to tune in. Not because meditation comes easily but because the mind is really spooked by feelings. As children, we found ourselves in situations that harmed us and generated negative feelings, even in the best of homes. To a young child, fear and pain can appear to be devastating, virtually life threatening. (As adults we have almost completely lost the ability to remember or even imagine what it was like being a child; the modes of functioning are so different that they might as well belong to different species.) Also, children have little control over their situations. Because children are helpless to change their situations, their mind comes in and buffers them from their feelings. At first, children may do this consciously, but with time and success it becomes habitual and unconscious, the mind coming in to protect the child from what appear to be overwhelming and devastating feelings.

For instance, one feeling often suppressed or repressed is anger. Early in the game, the child gets angry at a parent, and the parental response is so threatening, either physically or emotionally, that the child concludes this is dangerous behavior. In the child's mind, a strong parental response can appear to threaten his very existence or at minimum entail negative consequences. Thus, the child learns not to act this way. First, he stops expressing his anger, and then he finds a way to not even allow the anger to arise in his consciousness. And over time, this becomes an automatic response that happens outside of awareness.

Another feeling that gets repressed or suppressed is sadness. When children feel sad, parents let them know that is not okay. Maybe the parents feel guilty when their children are not happy or worry that others might think they are not good parents. So parents continually let children know it is not okay to be sad. And to please their parents or to avoid parental disapproval, children learn to sit on their sadness.

One way or another, feelings get suppressed or repressed. Even happiness may evoke a negative response from parents. It is surprisingly common for parents whose lives may not be going as they had hoped to feel jealous of their children's spontaneous joy and happiness. This happens in spite of the fact that they profess love for their children, and they are almost never aware of their jealousy. It is just that whenever their children are exuberant or happy, these parents find some excuse to bring them down. In this type of situation, children learn that it is not okay to feel good.

When we restore our ability to feel, we begin to undercut the whole delusional system that is the foundation of our personality. Feelings tell us what is actually happening with us, not what we think is happening, not what we want to happen, not what should happen, but what actually is happening. Then we have the ability to learn from experience. We can see how our thoughts and actions actually affect our lives. Then changes happen, of themselves, without any effort from us. The organism tends toward health. But to heal, we must be aware of the dis-ease. There is no need for psychological processing or even understanding because healing happens from deep within, spontaneously, when the dis-ease is clearly seen. Not only will problems tend to resolve themselves but you will find your life unbelievably enriched. Feelings add another dimension to being alive.

"There is a way which is supremely effective. Just look at yourself as you are, see yourself as you are, accept yourself as you are, and go ever deeper into what you are".
Nisargadatta Maharaj, Indian mystic

http://thewayofseeing.com/article_tuning-in.html

No Nonsense Guide to Enlightenment ~ Excerpts

By Blair Warren

A dangerous thing happens when a man discovers his own truth. Suddenly, he no longer finds himself at the feet of some guru. He no longer buys into the pretty pictures his teachers once held up for him as bait. He no longer finds himself bound by the dogma of some body of thought that supposedly holds the keys to his salvation. He has fought his way out of the cage and earned his freedom. And no one who controls him or hopes to in the future wants to see that happen.

The fact is no one holds the key to your own enlightenment except you. It  is yours to use at any time you choose. It is my position that the only reason you haven’t recognized this before is that others have, knowingly or unknowingly, encouraged you to look elsewhere for that key and you believed them. You don’t need to chant, believe in spirits, shave your head or give your life over to a guru. Again, you can do these things and find enlightenment. But, if you’re like me and turned off by such approaches yet still feel pulled toward enlightenment, there is another way.

In fact, my purpose in writing this book is simply this: to get you to stop looking “out there” for the answer and, instead, simply recognize the power you have had all along, a power some would rather you never discover.

(From pp.13-14 "Why Seek Enlightenment")

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On Inner Conflict(s)

 Early in the movie The Patriot, Mel Gibson’s character, Benjamin Martin, finds himself squarely in the middle of an inner conflict. He is torn between honoring his own values and those of his country. He handles the conflict well enough until his unwillingness to serve his country leads to some devastating consequences in his own life. He is now distraught as he considers what part his  own actions have already played, and may continue to play, in the misery that is unfolding around him. Does he continue to honor his own inner values or does he serve the “higher good” of his nation? As he sits in agony, contemplating this question, a loving relative tries to help him resolve his inner conflict. “You have done nothing for which you should be ashamed,” she tells him.

This person truly cares for Mel Gibson’s character and is troubled by seeing him in so much pain. She has his best interests at heart and is doing her best to help him. Now, think of how most of us might react to her kind words. In an effort to resolve our inner conflict we might be tempted to accept and embrace her words.
But with that one response we would have given away all our power. If Mel Gibson’s character had responded this way, the movie would have been over right then and there. His opportunity to become a hero would have been washed away by his relative’s compassionate words.

But, what if Mel Gibson had sought to distract himself from his inner conflict? Maybe he would have agreed with her and then asked her to go for a walk or have a bite to eat. That would get his mind off his troubles. But again, it would also destroy his opportunity to change his life. No, Mel Gibson’s character  doesn’t attempt to resolve his inner conflict or distract himself from it. He faces it head on. When his relative tells him,
 “You have done nothing for which you should be ashamed. He responds, “I have done nothing. And for that I am ashamed.”

And it is here that his hero’s journey begins. His response doesn’t resolve his inner conflict and it doesn’t take his mind off of it. His response turns the conflict into an inner source of energy that propels him to act. Is he still ashamed of his previous actions? Yes. Is he still aware of them? Yes. But they no longer cripple him. They empower him.

You see, the very situations we seek to resolve often contain the very keys to the power we seek, if we can leave them be long enough for their lessons to appear. Clearly there are contradictions and conflicts that must be handled immediately to ensure the safety of ourselves or others. But not all contradictions we become aware of are emergencies. And for those that aren’t, if we can learn to entertain them and continue on in our lives in spite of them, they can become some of the greatest sources of power and wisdom in our lives.

"The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function."
F. Scott Fitzgerald

(From pp.54-56 "Embracing Contradictions & Conflict")
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  On Enlightenment

If you recall the night I woke up and experienced my life in an entirely new light, you can see the very qualities of the experience I have asked you to remember. It was unexpected, it was sudden and it was dramatic. And it was these qualities that gave me the “jolt” of enlightenment. For the briefest moment in time I was in a psychological freefall as my old way of seeing life gave way and a new one had yet to take hold. This freefall was the core of my enlightenment experience, not the hour of bliss that followed. During that hour I became “attached” to the idea that my life was a gift. What a wonderful attachment. But that’s not enlightenment. Enlightenment is that moment between perspectives when everything you were just certain about is now up for grabs and your future is wide open.

Sounds a bit blasphemous in light of what we have been led to believe about enlightenment, doesn’t it? Where are the fireworks? Where is the chanting and the meditation? And where is the guru to take all the credit? Nowhere. There is only you and a “jolt” of enlightenment and that is all there needs to be. Until you recognize this, you will always be chasing the elusive and illusive notion of enlightenment that is always just a book, seminar or guru away. But if you stop chasing the fantasy long enough to consider the power of your own experience, you may be surprised at what you find.

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On the Value of Personal Experience

Imagine that sitting before you is a mysterious old envelope. Something about it strikes you as familiar, but you can’t recall what it is. You gently open the envelope and discover a delightful collection of long lost photographs from your past. There you are riding a pony. In this one you’re squinting with a forced, toothless grin in your third grade class picture. Here’s one of you and your best friend before he moved away and you never heard from him again. There are some photos of your old family vacations and even one of your first car. Nothing particularly earth shattering, but they do bring back warm memories. Though the pictures themselves are old and faded, some even out of focus and cracked, you hardly notice; it is the memories they evoke that count.

Now imagine the same envelope sitting before you. This time when you open it, it contains not faded old pictures from your past, but recent, crisp, full color photos of overseas vacations, black tie affairs and romantic getaways. They are the kind of pictures that take one’s breath away. Each picture is in and of itself a work of art, the kind of picture you might find in a gallery somewhere. There isn’t a person in the world who wouldn’t find these photographs to be of higher quality and more valuable than the first ones. Not a person in the world that is, except for you. You see, these new photographs aren’t yours. The beautiful, smiling faces within them belong to strangers. The exotic places where the pictures were taken are unrecognizable to you. And the beautiful memories they contain belong to others. No matter how beautiful the new pictures are, no matter how desirable others may find them, they cannot compare to yours. The pictures from your past may be cracked, faded and out of focus; they may be of “ordinary” events in “ordinary” locations, but the memories and emotions they stir in you are strong. They are your memories based on your experiences and that is what gives them their power. We wouldn’t think of trading our own cherished family photos to someone else for new, more exciting photos of strange people and unknown lands. That would defeat the purpose of the photos themselves. Why then, do we routinely hold the experiences of others to be more beautiful, meaningful and profound than our own?

I assure you that, if you strip away all the flowery descriptions and heavenly explanations from the enlightenment experiences of others, you will find a common core: a sudden, dramatic and unexpected shift in the way they saw the world. Nothing more, nothing less. Sound familiar? Perhaps like something you may have once experienced? No matter how ordinary your experience appears to be in light of those you may have heard about, no matter how insignificant it may seem next to the “miraculous conversions” of others, it has the one vital element that the others do not: it is yours and that is enough.

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On Remembering

You see, in the face of an unforgiving reality, we often reach for help. We tend to hold others above ourselves and often respect their wisdom and intelligence more than our own. While there is nothing wrong with this approach, there is a source of help that can topple all others. And what is that source? Remembering. Remembering that we have faced an unforgiving reality before, and that in an instant, it crumbled before us and left us with a new understanding of our world. And when we can remember this, we can leave the gurus behind. Remembering that your understanding of the world can change at any moment isn’t always enough to make it do so. But it is enough to generate the doubt that is necessary to begin the process. When we doubt, we begin to question. When we question, we begin to uncover new ways of seeing the world. And when our absolute certainty in our current perspective gives way, we are free to adopt the way of seeing the world that best serves our interests.

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On Bliss

Still, there is one obvious question that must be addressed. Where’s the so called bliss of the enlightenment experience? After all, the promise of bliss is what makes enlightenment the ultimate carrot of mankind. Except for the sexual orgasm, this state of enlightened bliss may be the most sought after experience of mankind. If there isn’t necessarily always bliss involved, what’s the point in pursuing it?

Perhaps you didn’t feel blissful during the experience you identified in our exercise. If not, how could this experience truly be referred to as enlightenment? Because, again, enlightenment is simply an experience and experience is subjective. What thrills one person may frighten, bore or even seem irrelevant to another.

As long as you equate enlightenment with bliss, you will likely be searching for a very long time. Though you may in fact feel bliss during the experience of enlightenment, it isn’t the defining characteristic of the experienceand it isn’t always a part of it. If, on the other hand, you hold the notion that “detachment” is the core of the enlightenment experience, you will no longer need others to show you the way, for these experiences are common. You need only recognize the experiences when they occur.

(From pp.68-71 Chapter 8 "Discovering Your Own Key")

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On Everyday Events Wisdom

 Though it is commonly thought that great wisdom comes from studying ancient scrolls, long-dead poets and celebrated martyrs of days gone by, there is just as much wisdom available in the day-to-day circumstances of our lives. In fact, the everyday events of our lives may in fact be the greatest source of wisdom we can discover. Why? Because this source of wisdom doesn’t come with convenient how-to instructions and centuries of experts proclaiming its authenticity and validity, but rather must be uncovered, translated and celebrated by no one but ourselves. In discovering the wisdom available to us in everyday life, we must learn to question, learn to see, and ultimately be strong enough to accept the lessons we learn on our own authority.

(From p.73 "Now What")

Self = Other = All That Is ~ On Subject/Object Inter-dependence

Today my father says to me in conversation "there is no self without others"... In agreement, I say conversely "there is no other without the self". The former philosophic view is Buddhist, the latter isVedanta. The Higher Self or 'Atman' is an experience of connection, of no identification as a separate self or ego living in isolation. Though solitary, the Self is common to All Beings and is All-Inclusive... not just with other humans, but animals, nature and Mother Earth Herself.

It is necessary to see this from the perspective of Ultimate Source, beyond dualistic human consciousness of "I and Thou".... that Whole which is greater than the sum of parts and includes both "subject and object". Enlightened Vedantin Master Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj says "I Am That", meaning the subjective Consciousness "I Am" is that very screen upon which this illusion, this human play, and all its individual dramas are made manifest and become actual (for a moment in time). The world exists because I exist, and yet this is not a doctrine of separation because the same Truth applies to All... All of Us are Creator, Projector and Witness of Universal Energy, Light and Consciousness made manifest via Physical Body, Mother Nature and Planet Earth; and all of us with unique individual expressions, authentic creative abilities and something deeply personal, original to offer others. The key is to remember the reverse, that I don't exist apart from Others, from the Earth, Universe and Life Itself.

The Love, Freedom and Happiness that one gives to another is possible only when it's coming from that Individual who has given to his/her self first. If you have nothing for yourself you have nothing to give. If you don't love yourself then surely you cannot love any other! To sacrifice your self-interest for society at large, for your employer, or even for a relationship is not only to deny oneself happiness but to indirectly expect the same selfless sacrifice from others. With this philosophy, no one is happy and all of us martyrs are left with only with morbid ideas of self sacrifice, suffering and a torturous crucifixion on the Cross.

 To be solitary and standing alone, being true to your Self (your True Nature: Peaceful Open Awareness, Boundless Energy, Wisdom & Love), is in the most positive sense not to be isolated, to openly include other people and general surroundings, to connect and merge with All of Life... and never leaving your "Center of Being, that which is limitless and without circumference".

Ultimately, the interdependent relationship of "self and other" in a dualistic reality experience is transcended and it could be said that neither truly exists... there is only What Is, the One All Pervading Truth of Spirit Life that makes All of This a Reality.. This Reality we call Here and Now, Existence or Beingness.

In Deep Inner Connection,

JD Zenie

Shambala

Wash away my troubles, wash away my pain
With the rain in Shambala
Wash away my sorrows, wash away my shame
With the rain in Shambala

Everyone is helpful, everyone is kind
On the road to Shambala
Everyone is lucky, everyone is so kind
On the road to Shambala

How does your light shine
In the halls of Shambala
How does your light shine
In the halls of Shambala

I can tell my sister 'bout the flowers in her eyes
On the road to Shambala
I can tell my brother 'bout the flowers in his eyes
On the road to Shambala

How does your light shine
In the halls of Shambala
How does your light shine
In the halls of Shambala
Tell me how, how does your light shine
In the halls of Shambala
Tell me how, how does your light shine
In the halls of Shambala

Three Dog Night

Self Realization in Action

By Joel D Zenie

Self Realization or Enlightenment is what bestows reality upon those mystical experiences of youth and early adulthood.. where life is a meaningful journey and my own Self (as Witness) is at the creative, perceptive and active center of it all. This awareness is what makes each moment of life meaningful regardless of what is happening, pleasant or unpleasant, sacred or profane. Vedanta is not a practical philosophy nor a formula of success for making things happen in your material life. It does however, through meditation in action, make possible the perfect spontaneous response to what is happening now, and keeps the individual from losing self in externals (mentally, physically, environmentally and socially).

 This foundation of right action, a.k.a the basic Ground of Being, is essential for a happy and liberated existence in the present moment and assists you in gracefully going with the flow. The implementation of practical (often repetitive) action is what allows for something meaningful to concretely manifest. Creativity requires both this present moment Self Awareness and the willingness to both create and implement a structure, thus going with the flow while also planning/directing your course consciously.

Some Principles of Living in Spirit (The Heart Center):

1- Non identification with being spiritually evolved person and not identifying oneself as this or that religion. I am here and now, alive, awake and present... beyond this, I have no other self image or construct.

2- The loss of "spiritual ego" in the sense of believing you have "attained something special"... the recognition that the life force is always in motion and evolves ever onward, without rest.

3- Non-comparison of one's own spiritual progress with that of others, both on and off the Path of Knowledge.

4- Humility, Kindness, Compassion, Equanimity... while remaining centered in Self and focused fixedly (one pointedly) upon one's own Primary Purpose.

5- Never ceasing in the inquiry of "Who Am I?" and the Consciousness "I Am".

On Death

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Everyone has to die; so die as your true nature. Why die as a body? Never forget your true nature. It may not be acceptable to many, but it is a fact... this body has nothing to do with you. If you must have an ambition have the highest, so that at least while dying, you will be the Absolute. Decide that now firmly, with certainty and conviction. Giving up the body is a great festival.

Death is generally considered to be a traumatic experience, but understand what happens. That which has been born, the knowledge 'I am' which is the same everywhere, but which has gotten itself limited by the body, again becomes unlimited. A speck of consciousness is given up. Why the fear? How has this fear of
death crept in? That which cannot die somehow became convinced that it was going
to die. It is based on the concept that one is an individual who is born... all the fear arises from mere words told to you by someone. This is the bondage. It is like
someone gives you a drink and then tells you, "I have put poison in that drink, and in six months you will die.? Immediately you become very frightened because you
think that you will die. But then you meet a friend and he tells you not to worry. He says, "Here, drink this and there will be no death for you. First there is one concept which fills you full of fright, and then there is another concept which negates the first concept. Like this you get involved with the flow of maya and there are concepts, ideas, creations... pain alternates with pleasure... but all of it is just ignorance and misery. It is only when you search for your Self that you become aware that it is all a fraud.

Be still in your beingness. Then even it will disappear and you will merge
in Truth. All that needs to be done is to find out your real source and take up
headquarters there. From the Absolute standpoint, your beingness is only ignorance.
Nothing comes and nothing goes; it is a mirage. All there is is the Absolute, all there is is the Truth. The witness of the consciousness never comes into the realm of the consciousness. When you pursue this spiritual path of understanding the Self, all your desires just drop off... even the primary desire... to be. When you stay put in the beingness for some time, that drops off. Then you are in the Absolute... there is no movement for you. You are minding the show. Consciousness extinguishes itself, knowingness disappears, and you, the Absolute remains. That is the moment of death.

When this life force leaves the body, it will not seek permission from anything. It came spontaneously and will leave spontaneously. That is all that happens in what is called death. Death is the culmination of the experience 'I am'. After the termination of the 'I amness' there is no experience of knowingness or not knowingness. What did you know prior to your birth? Similarly, after death this
instrument is missing; without the body there is no experience. Eternity has no birth and no death, but a temporary state has a beginning and an end. Even when the
consciousness goes, you prevail - you always are - as the Absolute. As the consciousness you are everything that comes into manifestation. Whatever is, is you.
But, when you fully understand the knowledge 'I am' and all its manifestations, then
you will understand that, in truth, you are not that. You are the unlimited, which is not susceptible to the senses. By limiting yourself to the body you have closed
yourself to the unlimited potential which you really are. Treat the body like a visitor or a guest, which has come and which will go. You must know your position as a host very clearly while it is still here, and while it is here you must also know what your position will be after it leaves.

In spirituality there is no question of doing... only observing and understanding. But, if you try to understand spirituality through various concepts, like birth and rebirth, you will get caught up in them in a vicious cycle. And once you are caught up in them you are bound to have them. Out of concepts the forms are created. Right now, think of that last moment when the body will go - at that time with what identity are you going to quit? When you become aware of your true nature, then at the end of your life you will not be prepared to give even one paisa to extend your life. You will have lost all love for this manifested world and you will not want even this consciousness for five minutes more.

The vital breath leaves the body, the 'I amness' recedes and goes to the Absolute. That is the greatest moment, the moment of immortality. The 'I amness' was there, the movement was there, and now it is extinguished. Being alive is never as an individual, but simply being part of the spontaneous manifestation. Now that has subsided in death. The ignorant one will struggle and get frightened at the moment of death; most reluctantly he will give up the consciousness to a concept he has come to call time. But the jnani gives up the beingness to his own true nature; for him it is the happiest of moments.

Ascending

By Joel D Zenie

Though this world be a sinking ship, and this body going down with it, I fear not.. for the knowledge that I am not this body, nor of this world, becomes self evident. Reaching for the light of the Sun, ascending toward the Heavens, I see and feel the call to ultimate freedom, leaving behind all human fears, pain and suffering.

The Great Eastern Sun shines eternally with the promise of renewal and transcendence of yesterday. It reminds that pleasures of the senses, when indulged immoderately and to addiction, are what keep this Soul bound in darkness, with deep rooted attachments and the fear of losing all (including one's own essential being). As all materialistic/animalistic desire, with it's mix of pleasure and pain, is brought to light and seen through the wise eyes of Spirit, the desired object/image and all its associations dissolve instantly back into yesterday's consciousness.. a previous evolutionary stage that one need not repeatedly regress back into

As I look to the Sun it warms me and encourages deep inner faith, and as I look to the Moon it nurtures me along this treacherous yet joyous and meaningful Earthly journey.

Knowing

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Freedom from all desire is eternity. All attachment implies fear, for all things are transient. And fear makes one a slave. This freedom from attachment does not come with practice; it is natural, when one knows one's true being. Self-knowledge is detachment. All craving is due to a sense of insufficiency. When you know that you lack nothing, that all there is, is you and yours, desire ceases.

Before you can know anything directly, non-verbally, you must know the knower. So far, you took the mind for the knower, but it is not so. The mind clogs you up with images and ideas, which leave scars in memory. You take remembering to be knowledge. True knowledge is ever fresh, new, unexpected. It wells up from within. When you know what you are, you also are what you know. Between knowing and being there is no gap.

The "I am" in movement creates the world. The "I am" at peace becomes the Absolute. Of course you can [change the world you project]. But you must cease identifying yourself with it and go beyond. Then you have the power to destroy and re-create.

The dreams are not equal, but the dreamer is one. I am the insect, I am the poet - in dream. But in reality I am neither. I am beyond all dreams. I am the light in which all dreams appear and disappear. I am both inside and outside the
dream. Just as a man having a headache knows the ache and also knows that he is not the ache, so do I know the dream, myself dreaming and myself not dreaming - all at the same time. I am what I am before, during and after the dream. But what I see in dream, I am not.

All you can do is to grasp the central point: that reality is not an event and does not happen, and whatever happens, whatever comes and goes, is not really. See the event as event only, the transient as transient, experience as mere experience, and you have done all you can do. But as soon as there is some like or dislike, you have drawn a screen. I was undeceived, that is all. I used to create a world and
populate it. Now I don't do it any more. [Now I live] in the void beyond being and non-being, beyond consciousness. This void is also fullness; do not pity me. The mind ceased producing events. The ancient and ceaseless search stopped - I wanted nothing, expected nothing, accepted nothing as my own. There was no "me" left to strive for. Even the bare "I am" faded away. The other thing that I noticed was that I lost all my habitual certainties. Earlier I was sure of so many things, now I am sure of nothing. But I feel that I have lost nothing by not knowing, because all my knowledge was false. My not knowing was in itself knowledge of the fact that all knowledge is ignorance, that "I do not know" is the only true statement the mind can make.

Somehow it was very simple and easy in my case. My guru, before he died, told me: "Believe me, you are the Supreme Reality. Don't doubt my words, don't disbelieve me.
I am telling you the truth, act on it". I could not forget his words and by not forgetting, I have realized. Once the guru told me: "You are the Supreme Reality", I ceased having visions and trances and became very quiet and simple. I found myself desiring and knowing less and less, until I could say in utter astonishment: "I know nothing, I want nothing."

So many words you have learnt, so many you have spoken. You know everything, but you do not know yourself. For the self is not known through words, only direct insight will reveal it. Look within, search within.

I Am That ~ Selected Conversations

39. By Itself Nothing has Existence

M: Just like the one sun is reflected in a billion dew drops, so is the timeless endlessly repeated. When l repeat: 'I am, I am', I merely assert and re-assert an ever-present fact. You get tired of my words because you do not see the living truth behind them. Contact it and you will find the full meaning of words and of silence -- both.

Q: You say that the little girl is already the mother of her future child. Potentially -- yes. Actually -- no.
M: The potential becomes actual by thinking. The body and its affairs exist in the mind.

M: By itself nothing has existence. Everything needs its own absence. To be, is to be distinguishable, to be here and not there, to be now and not then, to be thus and not otherwise. Like water is shaped by the container, so is everything determined by conditions (gunas). As water remains water regardless of the vessels, as light remains itself regardless of the colours it brings out, so does the real remain real, regardless of conditions in which it is reflected. Why keep the
reflection only in the focus of consciousness? Why not the real itself?
Q: Consciousness itself is a reflection. How can it hold the real?
M: To know that consciousness and its content are but reflections, changeful and transient, is the focusing of the real. The refusal to see the snake in the rope is the necessary condition for seeing the rope.

Q: Only necessary, or also sufficient?
M: One must also know that a rope exists and looks like a snake. Similarly, one must know that the real exists and is of the nature of witness-consciousness. Of course it is beyond the witness, but to enter it one must first realise the state of pure witnessing. The awareness of conditions brings one to the unconditioned.

Q: Can the unconditioned be experienced?
M: To know the conditioned as conditioned is all that can be said about the unconditioned. Positive terms are mere hints and misleading.

Q: Can we talk of witnessing the real?
M: How can we? We can talk only of the unreal, the illusory, the transient, the conditioned. To go beyond, we must pass through total negation of everything as having independent existence. All things depend.

Q: On what do they depend?
M: On consciousness. And consciousness depends on the witness.
Q: And the witness depends on the real?
M: The witness is the reflection of the real in all its purity. It depends on the condition of the mind. Where clarity and detachment predominate, the witness-consciousness comes into being. It is just like saying that where the water is clear and quiet, the image of the moon appears. Or like daylight that appears as sparkle in the diamond.

Q: Can there be consciousness without the witness?
M: Without the witness it becomes unconsciousness, just living. The witness is latent in every state of consciousness, just like light in every colour. There can be no knowledge without the knower and no knower without his witness. Not only you know, but you know that you know.

Q: If the unconditioned cannot be experienced, for all experience is conditioned, then why talk of it at all?
M: How can there be knowledge of the conditioned without the unconditioned? There must be a source from which all this flows, a foundation on which all stands. Self-realisation is primarily the knowledge of one's conditioning and the awareness that the infinite variety of conditions depends on our infinite ability to be conditioned and to give rise to variety. To the conditioned mind the unconditioned appears as the totality as well as the absence of everything. Neither can be directly experienced, but this does not make it not existent.

Q: Everybody believes in God.
M: To me you are your own God. But if you think otherwise, think to the end. If there be God, then all is God's and all is for the best. Welcome all that comes with a glad and thankful heart. And love all creatures. This too will take you to your Self.

40. Only the Self is Real

Maharaj: The world is but a show, glittering and empty. It is, and yet is not. It is there as long as I want to see it and take part in it. When I cease caring, it dissolves. It has no cause and serves no purpose. It just happens when we are absentminded. It appears exactly as it looks, but there is no depth in it, nor meaning. Only the onlooker is real. Call him Self or Atma. To the Self the world is but a colourful show, which he enjoys as long as it lasts and forgets when it is over. Whatever happens on the stage makes him shudder in terror or roll with laughter, yet all the time he is aware that it is but a show. Without desire or fear he enjoys it, as it happens.

Questioner: The person immersed in the world has a life of many flavours. He weeps, he laughs, loves and hates, desires and fears, suffers and rejoices. The desireless and fearless jnani, what life has he? Is he not left high and dry in his aloofness?
M: His state is not so desolate. It tastes of the pure, uncaused, undiluted bliss. He is happy and fully aware that happiness is his very nature and that he need not do anything, nor strive for anything to secure it. It follows him, more real than the body, nearer than the mind itself. You imagine that without cause there can be no happiness. To me dependence on anything for happiness is utter misery. Pleasure and pain have causes, while my state is my own, totally uncaused, independent, unassailable.
Q: Like a play on the stage?
M: The play was written, planned and rehearsed. The world just spouts into being out of nothing and returns to nothing.

I Am That, Selections from Chapters 39 & 40
Sri Nisargatta Maharaj

If You Could Read My Mind

If You Could Read My Mind, ©1969 by Gordon Lightfoot

If you could read my mind, love,
What a tale my thoughts could tell.
Just like an old time movie,
'Bout a ghost from a wishing well.
In a castle dark or a fortress strong,
With chains upon my feet.
You know that ghost is me.
And I will never be set free
As long as I'm a ghost that you can't see.

If I could read your mind, love,
What a tale your thoughts could tell.
Just like a paperback novel,
The kind the drugstores sell.
Then you reached the part where the heartaches come,
The hero would be me.
But heroes often fail,
And you won't read that book again
Because the ending's just too hard to take!

I'd walk away like a movie star
Who gets burned in a three way script.
Enter number two:
A movie queen to play the scene
Of bringing all the good things out in me.
But for now, love, let's be real;
I never thought I could feel this way
And I've got to say that I just don't get it.
I don't know where we went wrong,
But the feeling's gone
And I just can't get it back.

If you could read my mind, love,
What a tale my thoughts could tell.
Just like an old time movie,
'Bout a ghost from a wishing well.
In a castle dark or a fortress strong.
With chains upon my feet.
But stories always end,
And if you read between the lines,
You'd know that I'm just tryin' to understand
The feelin's that you lack.
I never thought I could feel this way
And I've got to say that I just don't get it.
I don't know where we went wrong,
But the feelin's gone
And I just can't get it back!
-----------------------------------------------
One of those classic songs that I relate to today though it's particular storyline is not so relevant now as it was before.

Jdz

The Power of Humility

Essential Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
by Geshe Michael Roach & Christie McNally

I.1 I will now review for you
how we become whole.
Atha yoga-anushashanam.

Another meaning of yoga is to become whole. Ultimately we only become whole when we are truly capable of helping others with the things that really matter: when we can help them understand how they came into this world, and what life is for, and whether it has to end with losing everything.

This then, says Master Patanjali, is why I write my short book. He wants us to know, from the very beginning, that his book contains something of ultimate importance, something worth the precious hours of our life.

And I will only review, says the Master, what I have heard from my holy teachers. He attacks his own pride: I have nothing new to tell you, and there is nothing here that I have made up myself. I am only a vessel for the wisdom of the ages, and I pass it on to you—tried, tested, and unadulterated.

And he says, “I will” write this book, for once a Master promises to do something, they do it—or die trying. All the great books of India begin with these three noble themes. Their power, their karma, stops all obstacles to the work we now begin.

TO BECOME WHOLE

I.2 We become whole by stopping
how the mind turns.
Yogash chitta virtti nirodhah.

These are perhaps the most important words of the entire Yoga Sutra.Here the Master tells us another meaning of yoga, which is learning to stop The Great Mistake.

And what is The Great Mistake? Our mind turns; meaning it turns things around the wrong way. A mother takes her small child to a movie. On the screen, a man is hurting a puppy.

The child cries out, and reaches to stop the man. Perhaps the child can even get up to the screen, and try to hit the man. But this doesn’t stop the man; it has nothing to do with the man. And the child hurts their own hand in the process.

Our mind makes this same kind of mistake, every day, every moment of every day. We need to stop the mistake, and that is yoga. Pain is real —yes—and it really hurts people. But we can only stop it if we can stop misunderstanding where it comes from. And this is what Yoga Sutra teaches us to do.

Witnessing

I AM THAT (Chapter 10)
by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Q: Yes, that is my problem. I want things, but I am lazy when it comes to action.
M: When your desire is not clear nor strong, it cannot take shape. Besides, if your desires are personal, for your own enjoyment, the energy you give them is necessarily limited; it cannot be more than what you have.
Q: Yet, often ordinary persons do attain what they desire.
M: After desiring it very much and for a long time. Even then, their achievements are limited.
Q: And what about unselfish desires?
M: When you desire the common good, the whole world desires
with you. Make humanity's desire your own and work for it. There you cannot fail,
Q: Humanity is God’s work, not mine. I am concerned with myself. Have I not the right to see my legitimate desires fulfilled? They will hurt no one. My desires are legitimate. They are right desires, why don’t they come true?
M: Desires are right or wrong according to circumstances; it depends on how you look at them. It is only for the individual that a distinction between right and wrong is valid.
Q: What are the guide-lines for such distinction? How am I to know which of my desires are right and which are wrong?
M: In your case desires that lead to sorrow are wrong and those which lead to happiness are right. But you must not forget others. Their sorrow and happiness also count.
Q: Results are in the future. How can I know what they will be?
M: Use your mind. Remember. Observe. You are not different from others. Most of their experiences are valid for you too. Think clearly and deeply, go into the entire structure of your desires and their ramifications. They are a most important part of your mental and emotional makeup and powerfully affect your actions. Remember, you cannot abandon what you do not know. To go beyond yourself, you must know yourself.

Q: What does it mean to know myself? By knowing myself what exactly do I come to know?
M: All that you are not.
Q: And not what I am?
M: What you are, you already are. By knowing what you are not, you are free of it and remain in your own natural state. It all happens quite spontaneously and effortlessly.
Q: And what do I discover?
M: You discover that there is nothing to discover. You are what you are and that is all.
Q: I do not understand!
M: It is your fixed idea that you must be something or other, that blinds you.
Q: How can I get rid of this idea?
M: If you trust me, believe when I tell you that you are the pure awareness that illuminates consciousness and its infinite content. Realise this and live accordingly. If you do not believe me, then go within, enquiring ‘What an I’? or, focus your mind on ‘I am’, which is pure and simple being.
Q: On what my faith in you depends?
M: On your insight into other people’s hearts. If you cannot look into my heart, look into your own.
Q: I can do neither.
M: Purify yourself by a well-ordered and useful life. Watch over your thoughts, feelings, words and actions. This will clear your vision.
Q: Must I not renounce every thing first, and live a homeless life?
M: You cannot renounce. You may leave your home and give trouble to your family, but
attachments are in the mind and will not leave you until you know your mind in and out. First thing first -- know yourself, all else will come with it.
Q: But you already told me that I am the Supreme Reality. Is it not self-knowledge?
M: Of course you are the Supreme Reality! But what of it? Every grain of sand is God; to know it is important, but that is only the beginning.
Q: Well, you told me that I am the Supreme Reality. I believe you. What next is there for me to do?
M: I told you already. Discover all you are not. Body, feelings, thoughts, ideas, time, space, being and not-being, this or that -- nothing concrete or abstract you can point out to is you. A mere verbal statement will not do -- you may repeat a formula endlessly without any result whatsoever. You must watch yourself
continuously -- particularly your mind -- moment by moment, missing nothing.
This witnessing is essential for the separation of the self from the not-self.
Q: The witnessing -- is it not my real nature?
M: For witnessing, there must be something else to witness. We are still in duality!
Q: What about witnessing the witness? Awareness of awareness?
M: Putting words together will not take you far. Go within and discover what you are not. Nothing
else matters.

Chapter 16 Desirelessness, the Highest Bliss

Q: What are the uses of self-knowledge?
M: It helps you to understand what you are not and keeps you free from false ideas, desires and actions.
Q: If I am the witness only, what do right and wrong matter?
M: What helps you to know yourself is right. What prevents, is wrong. To know one's real self is bliss, to forget -- is sorrow.
Q: Is the witness-consciousness the real Self?
M: It is the reflection of the real in the mind (buddhi). The real is beyond. The witness is the door through which you pass beyond.
Q: What is the purpose of meditation?
M: Seeing the false as the false, is meditation. This must go on all the time.
Q: We are told to meditate regularly.
M: Deliberate daily exercise in discrimination between the true and the false and renunciation of the false is meditation. There are many kinds of meditation to begin with, but they all merge finally
into one.
Q: Please tell me which road to self-realisation is the shortest.
M: No way is short or long, but some people are more in earnest and some are less. I can tell you about myself. I was a simple man, but I trusted my Guru. What he told me to do, I did. He told me to concentrate on 'I am' -- I did. He told me that I am beyond all perceivables and conceivables -- I believed. I gave him my heart and soul, my entire attention and the whole of my spare time (I had to work to keep my family alive). As a result of faith and earnest application, I realised my self
(swarupa) within three years. You may choose any way that suits you; your earnestness will determine the rate of progress.
Q: No hint for me?
M: Establish yourself firmly in the awareness of 'I am'. This is the beginning and also the end of all endeavour.

Authentic Expression & Bare Attention

by Joel D Zenie

Bare Attention is Reality uncluttered by the activity of a thinker who interprets and imagines according to past conditioned influences that have shaped perspective. This Attention clears perception and opens up the path of the Real, of What Is, not to become docile or resigned to human limitation, but that in humility there is an openness and connection with Peripheral Reality, so one is expressing harmony (or grace) in action, and altruistic/compassionate action at the highest level. To spend a lifetime clinging to the conditioned and biased personal view, to the past, not questioning one's own conditioned mental process, is to limit oneself to a narrow, mechanical, small minded and inauthentic way of thinking, feeling and living.

Attention to what is does allow for the desire to creatively express Self, allowing the inner to manifest as the outer, and with artistic appreciation that goes beyond the purely left-brained scientific, empirical, and often sterile observation of the outer perceptual reality. What we call objective truth is really a subjective story, a projection of mind, some of it individual and most of it a collective hallucination of consciousness. Previous conditioning has created the perception of "what is now" and it is essential to honor this as well as recognizing the need for changing it, not by discarding reality (what is) in favor of an ideal (what ought to be) but by acting in harmony with life as it is actually happening, in alignment with here and now. It is the only effective win-win good for ALL concerned way of acting spontaneously, authentically, creatively and artfully in the world... from the inside out.

The question that arises now is whether it is okay to put the love of Self (including close family, partner, friends, etc) first, after many years (as a western world raised individual) of having been disconnected from the really precious part of being alive, and not just as another physical human body (with a little egoic mind) looking to survive and make a success of itself in "the outside world". It seems that the transition to inwardness for many of us seeking to awaken spiritually is a full time occupation, sometimes a struggle and other times an infatuation... this individual life I call authentically my own is a new and exciting discovery, with much evolution and self expression to unfold.

While keeping this mindful awareness intact, which is attentive to surroundings, people, and the world at large, and has an interest or openness to peripheral connection, I still find it is a bare undeniable fact of existence that nearly all my time, interest and attention goes to my self and what I call *my life or life path*. Because I believe this to be true of most everyone in the world today, everyone who is human, I raise the question as to whether this self-absorption is a most necessary and natural evolution with regard to where so many of us are inwardly and also living within the conditions of the outside material (modern, western) world.

It is my perspective that as open as I am to understanding and accepting Universal Truth, the world I live in and the path I trod today is a very much an INDIVIDUAL Truth that is sometimes in perfect harmony with the Tao or Way of things and other times troubled, turbulent, full of turmoil. Either way you look at it, light or dark, it is the only Way that I know to simply Be who I really and truly Am, following the guidance of this Heart's Desire, and living in the Clear Light of Spiritual Illumination.

As Mohandes Gandhi famously said you have to "be the change/love you want to see in the world". Our first and foremost responsibility as spiritual human beings is in being true to Self, and living each moment from the Spiritual Heart of Being.

Aha! News ~ Insight for 2-20

Om Namah Shivaya, Shivaya Namah Om

Bare Attention

By Mark Epstein M.D.

Common to all schools of thought, the unifying theme of the Buddhist approach is this remarkable imperative: "Pay precise attention, moment by moment, to exactly what you are experiencing, right now, separating out your reactions from the raw sensory events." This is what is meant by bare attention: just the bare facts, an exact registering, allowing things to speak for themselves as if seen for the first time, distinguishing any reactions from the core event.

It is this this attentional strategy that is followed throughout the meditative path. It is both the beginning practice and the culminating one: only the objects of awareness change. Beginning with the in and out breath, proceeding to bodily sensations, feelings, thoughts, consciousness, and finally the felt sense of I, meditation requires the application of bare attention to increasingly subtle phenomena. Culminating in a state of choiceless awareness in which the categories of "observer" and "that which is observed" are no longer operational, bare attention eventually obviates self-consciousness and permits the kind of spontaneity that has long intrigued the psychologically minded observers of Eastern practices. This the spontaneity that Western psychologists confuse with a true self idea. From the Buddhist perspective, such authentic actions leap forth from the clear perception of bare attention; there is no need to posit an intermediate agent who performs them.

The key to the transformational potential of bare attention lies in the deceptively simple injunction to separate out one's reactions from the core events themselves. Much of the time it turns out our everyday minds are in a state of reactivity. We take this for granted, we do not question our automatic identifications with our reactions, and we experience ourselves at the mercy of an often hostile or frustrating outer world or an overwhelming or frightening inner one. With bare attention, we move from this automatic identification with our fear or frustration to a vantage point from which the fear or frustration is attended to wit th same dispassionate interest as anything else. There is enormous freedom to be gained from such a shift. Instead of running from difficult emotions (or hanging on to enticing ones), the practitioner of bare attention becomes able to contain any reaction: making space for it, but not completely identifying with it because of the concomitant presence of nonjudgmental awareness.


Thoughts without a Thinker, pp 110-111

Toward Silence

by Ken Russell

It is somewhat ironic that I need to speak so much of silence. Yet silence is the most potent inducement for spiritual transformation, so potent that no moment of it, however brief or fleeting, is ever wasted. The fruits of silence are one of the few things you can be sure of in this life.

If you are on the spiritual path, you will want to do whatever is necessary to increase the amount of silence in your life. Unfortunately, you cannot make silence happen. You cannot, through exercises, will, or whatever, create silence. Silence happens when you are not there. That is, when you, as a distinct person or personality, are inactive, quiescent, not engaged. It does not mean that you are blotted out but that your personality is put on hold and a vital presence is functioning. Silence is actually a very alive space.

Silence gives us a taste of what we really are. When silence occurs, the focus of our awareness shifts from its mundane concerns and rests in our Being. This is a profound shift, and healing potentials are released. We become open to the vastness that is our true nature. We normally believe we are what we appear to be: the mind, the personality, our memories and history. We get caught up in the dramas that our mind and personality keep on creating. Because we live in and through our mind and are so familiar with its activities, the occurrence of silence—which is actually non-mind—generally does not register. When it does, it scares the personality because it looks like death. To the personality, the halting of its activities appears to be the end of it, death. Personality is akin to a bureaucracy that does not want to end. It does not want to relinquish the control it has over our lives.

Thus, silence does not appeal to the mind, and it does everything it can to avoid it. Sad but true, silence is an acquired taste. Although it is our birthright, something intrinsic to our being, society has buried it. We are trained from birth to have what is called in Buddhism monkey mind. This monkey mind is easily distracted and likes to flit about from one thing to another or, perversely, to obsess on something. Our conditioned mind is attuned to the grosser aspects of life: excitement, highs and lows, learning and achieving. These things create the appearance of aliveness that our conditioned mind so relishes. Silence holds little attraction for the monkey mind.

So it is necessary to become familiar with silence, and learn how to enjoy and be nourished by it. You need to create various ways to bring silence into your life, with the understanding that any doing is in itself "noise." Bringing silence into your life is more a matter of elimination than actively doing something new. You begin by eliminating those activities and attitudes that create noise and mental chatter. You observe the results of your activities and discover that certain ones, like watching TV and gossiping, tend to make your mind more active. You find that other activities, like walking in nature or listening to classical music, leave your mind less busy. So you start to create spaces and conditions where silence is more likely to happen, where silence is invited to arise. You have to invite it and clear the space for it since you cannot directly make it happen.

To make space for silence, you must be vigilant with your free time. What you do with your discretionary time is critical in fostering silence and has a major effect on your spiritual progress. Discretionary time is the time you have available to do exactly what you want with. Most of us have work responsibilities, household chores, perhaps a mate or children that require our time—the basic overhead of living. But over and beyond that, you have time available to use as you wish, even in the busiest schedule. And, if you find that you don't have free time and wish to grow spiritually, it is imperative that you create free time for yourself.

It is much easier for silence to happen when the mind is quiet, so do what you can to quiet your mind. The context for most of our lives is primarily social, and this social life is filled with mental and emotional snacks and feasts. You need to weigh the benefits of momentary social gratifications against the possibility of connecting with something deep within you which is vastly more nourishing.

Instead of feasting on all kinds of goodies, like the news, movies, self-improvement, parties, informative or pseudo-informative books, and gossip, start fasting the mind. Go against the whole trend of society, which is toward constant and excessive stimulation. The mind does not like it when you do this. The mind craves its diet of stimulation. It needs something to occupy itself with. But resist the mind's appetite for stimulation. Fasting the mind issues an invitation for silence to visit.

Normally, the mind is a glutton for activity. Society provides a nonstop carnival of distractions and allurements. If you succeed in avoiding these pitfalls, you will find that the mind still needs to be active and it will provide its own distractions. Mental activity doesn't always need the external to stimulate it. You can be sitting quietly, to all appearances doing nothing, and yet your mind can be working furiously. If you succeed in minimizing external stimulation, the mind will manufacture something to keep itself occupied. It feasts on planning, worrying, scheming, analyzing, fantasizing, regretting, hoping, and so forth. Anything to keep it going and having you believe you need its services. It is like a fireman who, worried about losing his job, goes about starting fires. There is always something that the mind will attempt to snack on. Do not harbor or play with these thoughts or indulge them or take them seriously. If you stop engaging with them—perhaps through meditation or a similar practice—they will die down, and silence will begin to happen.

A powerful aid for using your time wisely is to keep in mind the fact that you may die at any moment. No one can guarantee that you will live another day or even another minute. This is not intended to be morbid but to focus your attention on how you use your most valuable asset, time. Ask yourself how you would want to spend your last moments, and do your best to spend more of your time in those activities.

If you are serious about progressing on the spiritual path, you will be vigilant in how you use your time. The most powerful thing you can do is nothing. When we are silent we are closest to what we really are, an infinity beyond mental comprehension. Give silence a chance. You will find your life transformed without conscious effort.

"It is necessary to become familiar with silence, and learn how to enjoy and be nourished by it."

http://thewayofseeing.com/article_toward-silence.html