True Meditation

True meditation has no direction, goals, or method. All methods aim at achieving a certain state of mind. All states are limited, impermanent and conditioned. Fascination with states leads only to bondage and dependency. True meditation is abidance as primordial consciousness.

True meditation appears in consciousness spontaneously when awareness is not fixated on objects of perception. When you first start to meditate, you notice that awareness is always focused on some object: on thoughts, bodily sensations, emotions, memories, sounds, etc. This is because the mind is conditioned to focus and contract upon objects. Then the mind compulsively interprets what it is aware of (the object) in a mechanical and distorted way. It begins to draw conclusions and make assumptions according to past conditioning.

In true meditation all objects are left to their natural functioning. This means that no effort should be made to manipulate or suppress any object of awareness. In true meditation the emphasis is on being awareness; not on being aware of objects, but on resting as primordial awareness itself. Primordial awareness (consciousness) is the source in which all objects arise and subside.

As you gently relax into awareness, into listening, the mind's compulsive contraction around objects will fade. Silence of being will come more clearly into consciousness as a welcoming to rest and abide. An attitude of open receptivity, free of any goal or anticipation, will facilitate the presence of silence and stillness to be revealed as your natural condition.

Silence and stillness are not states and therefore cannot be produced or created. Silence is the non-state in which all states arise and subside. Silence, stillness and awareness are not states and can never be perceived in their totality as objects. Silence is itself the eternal witness without form or attributes.

As you rest more profoundly as the witness, all objects take on their natural functionality, and awareness becomes free of the mind's compulsive contractions and identifications. It returns to its natural non-state of Presence.

The simple yet profound question "Who Am I?" can then reveal one's self not to be the endless tyranny of the ego-personality, but objectless Freedom of Being -- Primordial Consciousness in which all states and all objects come and go as manifestations of the Eternal Unborn Self that YOU ARE.

Adyashanti.

Let go of excessive thinking

You don’t solve problems by thinking; you create problems by thinking. The solution always appears when you step out of thinking and become still and absolutely present, even if only for a moment. Then, a little later when thought comes back, you suddenly have a creative insight that wasn’t there before.

Let go of excessive thinking and see how everything changes. Your relationships change because you don’t demand that the other person should do something for you to enhance your sense of self. You don’t compare yourself to others or try to be more than someone else to strengthen your sense of identity.

Eckhart Tolle

You are the knowing, not the condition that is known.

The mind exists in a state of "not enough" and so is always greedy for more. When you are identified with mind, you get bored and restless very easily. Boredom means the mind is hungry for more stimulus, more food for thought, and its hunger is not being satisfied.

When you feel bored, you can satisfy the mind's hunger by picking up a magazine, making a phone call, switching on the TV, surfing the web, going shopping, or — and this is not uncommon — transferring the mental sense of lack and its need for more to the body and satisfy it briefly by ingesting more food.

Or you can stay bored and restless and observe what it feels like to be bored and restless. As you bring awareness to the feeling, there is suddenly some space and stillness around it, as it were. A little at first, but as the sense of inner space grows, the feeling of boredom will begin to diminish in intensity and significance. So even boredom can teach you who you are and who you are not.

You discover that a "bored person" is not who you are. Boredom is simply a conditioned energy movement within you. Neither are you an angry, sad, or fearful person. Boredom, anger, sadness, or fear are not "yours," not personal. They are conditions of the human mind. They come and go.

Nothing that comes and goes is you.
"I am bored." Who knows this?
"I am angry, sad, afraid." Who knows this?
You are the knowing, not the condition that is known.

Eckhart Tolle

Ramana's Primary Teaching

Ramana's primary teaching was to direct people to ask "Who am I?" This is not to be asked as though you are repeating a mantra, as some people mistakenly believed. Rather, it is to be asked in order to turn awareness back onto itself, thus revealing a conscious experience of awareness. To ask "Who am I?" is to reveal the in substantiality of the ego entity, the one who has been assumed to exist. When searched for, this ego entity will not be found. What will be found instead is the awareness in which the ego entity arises.

Kiki's wisdom .

What is Pure Silence ?

There is a space within us, our brain, our being, which is and has always been there. This is the awareness which you have known all your life. It is your realization that you are. It is the same which has been at your birth, during your youth, now and when you will be dead. This is your "you-ness." Some have called this your true self. This is something that, no matter what has occurred in your life, has never changed. Yes, this has been permanent in you. You must see this. It's very hard to put all this into accurate words that describe this fully and it is even more difficult to imagine this. But if you stop reading now, close your eyes, and see what is there, you may begin to taste this. What is always there in you, despite your moods, your emotions, your thoughts? I know you know this. See what is there at the core of your being. It seems you and the rest of humanity have spent your entire lives running from this, fearing this, covering this. I do not know all the reasons why. Perhaps our brains have not evolved enough yet.

You have probably followed some belief, some tradition, someone else's words or teaching. But I offer you something else. Let go of the thoughts, the imagination, the emotions; let go of everything and see what is left. Do this, not because I am telling you this, but because it is truly what you want to find out once and for all. You want to know. I know you do. What is this thing called existence all about? And more than that, what is your place in all this? Who are you? What is your purpose?

Pure Silence is within you. It is not just the absence of sound, or lack of noise. It is the ground, the basis of your very being. There is nothing to find out, nothing to prove. Just listen with your whole being to what is here, now. It is the most amazing thing you can ever discover.

It is with you now. It is you. The only way to find this is to stop everything else. Everything! Just be!

www.puresilence.org

Better to take responsibiluty for your life

It is better for you to take responsibility for your life as it is , instead of blaming others , or circumstances, for your predicament .As your eyes open , you'll see that your state of health , happiness , and every circumstance of your life has been , in large part , arranged by you - consciously or unconsciously .

From the Book "Way of the Peaceful Warrior by Dan Millman

How much time and effort is required to realize "the power of now"?

The power of now can only be realized now. It requires no time and effort. Effort means you’re trying hard to get somewhere, and so you are not present, welcoming this moment as it is.

Whereas it requires no time to awaken – you can only awaken now – it does take time before you can stay awake in all situations. Often you may find yourself being pulled back into old conditioned reactive patterns, particularly when faced with the challenges of daily living and of relationships. You lose the witnessing presence and become identified again with the "voice in the head," the continuous stream of thoughts, with its labels, judgments and opinions. You no longer know that they are only labels, judgments, and mental positions (opinions) – but completely believe in them. And so you create conflict. And then you suffer. And that suffering wakes you up again. Until presence becomes your predominant state, you may find yourself moving back and forth for a while between the old consciousness and the new, between mind identification and presence. "How long is it going to take?" is not a good question to ask. It makes you loose the now .

Eckhart Tolle

You are not the mind.

We have been taught that the mind is ourself, thinking.

We cannot be the mind because we are what is perceiving the mind. Look for yourself right now! You are looking at thoughts from a higher (prior) level. We cannot perceive ourself just as our eye cannot see itself because it is what is looking. The mind cannot be ourself. The Chinese Ch'an master Hsi Yun (Huang Po) said, "A perception cannot perceive."
So, are you the perceptions (thoughts and feelings) or what is perceiving them?

We feel we are the mind because of the way the mind itself works. The mind understands things by comparing perceptions and creating objective concepts of them so it can compare one concept with another. This is knowledge. Naturally, it soon creates a concept of itself as 'me' and there the trouble begins. Thus, the mind associates the sense of 'me' with its operation and with the body and we believe and feel we are an individual, thinking, acting entity. This is the origin of all
our suffering. Once we feel we are an individual we begin to see and evaluate everything as it relates to us as an individual. We become a thing in a universe of things. A very small, vulnerable, but supremely important (at least to ourself) individual, in a vast, infinite, seemingly purposeless, uncaring cosmos. We lose our original, true sense of identity with the Absolute.

Galen Sharp
Galen was a former disciple of Wei Wu Wei and former evangelical who sought a deeper meaning behind Jesus’ teachings.
An Exploration of NON-VOLITIONAL LIVING Galen Sharp (C) 1993, Galen Sharp

What success means

In a CNBC interview with Warren Buffet , here is an interesting piece of conversation. This in my opinion, is the essence of Buffet's thinking about life, success & happiness. Read on...

CNBC : "What is Warren Buffet's secret of success?"

Warren Buffet: "I say that when people get to my age, and they have the people who love them that they want to have love them...they're successful, whether they have got $1000 in the bank or a Billion Dollars in the bank."

CNBC : "Well you're talking to the CNBC audience Mr. Buffet. Let's talk about financial success, professional success"

Warren Buffet: "Well, I would say success is really doing what you love and doing it well....…It's simple as that."

Is real happiness actually effortless?

Question: Is real happiness actually effortless? The inner work I know is needed seems to be a constant struggle.

Guyfinley: Don't confuse the work to cultivate the soil with the garden that grows in the prepared soil. Real happiness is indeed effortless, once the causes of unhappiness are weeded out. In a way, you already know this truth through the experience of those moments where your joy is independent of the "you" that suddenly realizes it is having a happy time. This physical example can be applied to our spiritual life when we come to the new contentment born out of seeing that our former discontentment was rooted in a lie. Don't struggle to make yourself happy. Persist instead with your efforts to be free of the illusion that you must somehow struggle with unhappy thoughts or feelings. See these dark states as passing clouds. As you do this, you will know that behind them sits the sun.

Be living fully right now

Never look forward to anything. Do not live in excitement of forthcoming social occasions. No, this will not take true pleasure from you. By living fully right now, you live with the only genuine pleasure there is .

Vernon Howard

Dont associate with worldly people

If seekers are always in the company of worldly people who take the mind and body to be "I" , they will get affected by their mind currents .Self-ignorance can be contagious .Don't associate with worldly people .Either do meditation alone or do it with people who are also striving to give up their mental attachments .

Annamalai Swamy

God is not far away

God speaks in everyone's heart , but we are so occupied in the head that we never listen to that still , small voice within .There is so much clamoring , so much unnecessary noise - we have made the head a market place - that the heart goes on calling and we remain deaf to it .God is not far away , he is very close .All that is needed is the art of making the mind a little silent , a little less noisy , a little more peaceful , relaxed .
As the mind settles into relaxation, suddenly you start hearing a divine music within you .God has started playing on the instrument of your heart ,on the harp of your heart - and that music is transforming .Once heard it is never forgotten , once heard life is never the same again , once heard you have become part of immortal existence , you are no more a mortal .

Osho

Jnani's service to the world

Question to Ramana Maharishi : Some say that to make an effoft for one's liberation is selfish , and that instead of that , one should do good to others by selfless service .


Bhagawan Ramana Maharsihi : Those people ebleive that jnanis are selfish and that they themselves are selfless , but this in not a true belieft .The jnani lives in the experince of Brahman and the effect of this experience spreads all over the world . A radio transmission is done from one point but its effect can be felt all over the world .Those who would like to benefit from it can do so .Similarly , the Self - realisation of the Jnani spreads everywhere and whosoever wants can tune into it .This is not a lesser service .

Consciousness is not a thought

The mind has absolutely no capacity to cognize consciousness. The mind recognizes thoughts. But consciousness is not a thought. Thoughts appear IN consciousness. So the mind is an incompetent judge regarding anything to do with consciousness, including its supposed origin or end, because it cannot even cognize consciousness in the first place.

John Wheeler
http://thenaturalstate.org/index.html



John Wheeler
John met "Sailor" Bob Adamson (former student of Nisargadatta Maharaj) on a trip to Australia in 2003. Bob directly pointed out our real nature of self-shining, non-conceptual awareness and the means to conclusively resolve seeking, suffering and doubt. John enjoys sharing the good news with anyone interested in this message.

There are not two minds .

There are not two minds , a good mind and bad mind .The mind is only one .Tendencies ( vasanas ) alone are of two kinds , auspicious ( subha ) and inauspicious ( asubha ) .When the mind is under the influence of auspicious tendencies it is called a good mind , and when it is under the influence of inauspicious tendencies ,a bad mind .However bad others may appear to be , one should not dislike them .Likes and dislikes are both to be disliked .

Sri Ramana Maharishi

The description of food does not feed you

Do you understand the problem, sirs? Only the mind that is free can discover what is true—discover, not be told what is true. The description is not the fact. You may describe something in the most lovely language, put it in the most spiritual or lyrical words, but the word is not the fact. When you are hungry, the description of food does not feed you. But most of us are satisfied with the description of truth, and the description, the symbol, has taken the place of the factual. To discover whether there is a reality or not, we must be capable of seeing the true as the true, the false as the false, and not wait to be told like a lot of immature children.

J Krishnamurthy

Is having goals good ?

Having goals and dreams and working toward achieving those is fine as far as that goes. But ask yourself what is the goal and dream really about? Are they part of exploring what it is to be human or are they hiding another agenda, namely, satisfying a perceived lack?

If a goal is undertaken to make yourself more complete, to fill some idea of lack that you have then they become obstacles to happiness. This is because this sort of happiness is conditional. What if that goal isn't met, then where is the happiness? What if that goal is met, only to be replaced by the realization that the happiness doesn't last? A new goal will arise and the cycle will continue.

If, on the other hand, you have a goal in mind with no egoic investment then that's different. Meeting or not meeting the goal doesn't really matter then, so happiness or a sense of completeness doesn't rest on it. That sort of goal becomes a way of exploring what's possible rather than fulfilling some idea of need.

So when you do have goals keep attention on whatever the current step is in meeting that goal. In other words, make presence with current action toward achieving that goal the priority. Be wary of thinking that the goal itself has any answers for you in terms of making you better in your own eyes or the eyes of others. That sort of thinking arises out of the ego. Let thinking about the goal be absorbed in whatever the current action is and let the fruit of your actions take care of themselves.

Kiki's Wisdom
( Kiki is a moderator in EckhartTolle Discussion Forum )

Reading Upanishads without preparation

There is now-a-days a tendency to bypass the karmas such as Yajnas or study of the Vedas in the traditional way (Adhyayana) but to go straight to the study of the Upanishads. As a result, many people are becoming familiar with the contents of the Upanishads and are even able to discuss them at length at an intellectual level. However, this has not produced anyone who has a peace of mind, is free from passions, or has in practice realized the Truth about the Self or Atman. Why is this so?The reason is that the preliminary preparation in the shape of complying with the Vedic injunctions regarding Yajnas and worship has been ignored and the mind and body have not been disciplined. Hence, to omit to study the Vedas and perform the Karmas and straightway try to imbibe the truth in the Upanishads is as wrong as performing only the rituals, taking their meaning literally and not proceeding further to understand what the Upanishads say.



Kanchi Paramacharya

What is the nature of mind ?

That which is called 'mind', which projects all thoughts, is an awesome power existing within the Self, one's real nature. If we discard all thoughts and look [to see what remains when there are no thoughts, it will be found that] there is no such entity as mind remaining separate [from those thoughts]. Therefore, thought itself is the nature of the mind. There is no such thing as 'the world' independent of thoughts. There are no thoughts in deep sleep, and there is no world. In waking and dream there are thoughts, and there is also the world. Just as a spider emits the thread of a web from within itself and withdraws it again into itself, in the same way the mind projects the world from within itself and later reabsorbs it into itself. When the mind emanates from the Self, the world appears. Consequently, when the world appears, the Self is not seen, and when the Self appears or shines, the world will not appear.

If one goes on examining the nature of the mind, it will finally be discovered that [what was taken to be] the mind is really only one's self. That which is called one's self is really Atman, one's real nature. The mind always depends for its existence on something tangible. It cannot subsist by itself. It is the mind that is called sukshma sarira [the subtle body] or jiva [the soul].

Bhagawan Ramana Maharishi

To know peace you have to find out what beauty is

Peace is of the heart, not of the mind. To know peace you have to find out what beauty is. The way you talk, the words you use, the gestures you make—these things matter very much, for through them you will discover the refinement of your own heart. Beauty cannot be defined, it cannot be explained in words. It can be understood only when the mind is very quiet.

J Krishnamurthy