Friday, June 12, 2009

Ever-present Grace

o
There is nothing
for 'us' to 'do'...
There is no need
to gain favour with the Supreme Being
(for 'salvation' or 'liberation')...
When the experience of separateness
is truly enough...
when it holds no more interest,
all that will remain
is Supreme Being.
o

o

Separateness exists until

the experience is satisfactory

and holds no more interest...

Then, only Beingness remains.

o

o

Every 'soul'

is a point of consciousness

in the kaleidoscopic hall of mirrors

that is the 'self-reflexive' universe –


The One Being

Meditating

upon its Infinite Nature.

o

o
Every perspective has its own 'truth'.
'Spriritual' truth is what remains
when we drop all postures and perspectives

and experience the nameless and wordless...
'That' which simply 'Is'.
o

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

o
Here is a link to an article about the various ways to relate to the 'Absolute' or 'God'...

Tuesday, June 09, 2009

A quote on Enlightenment (from Andrew Cohen)

"Traditionally, enlightenment has been defined as a profound awakening to the Ground of Being - an awakening in which the seeker finds liberation through transcending the world of time and space.

But in the new enlightenment, which is redefined in an evolutionary context, the discovery of this primordial ground is not an end in itself. It becomes the essential foundation from which the individual is freed to participate wholeheartedly in the evolutionary process.

What arises out of that ground is an impulse to evolve, which I call the Authentic Self, and the goal of Evolutionary Enlightenment is to liberate this creative principle in human consciousness so that it can transform us and the world around us."

- Andrew Cohen


Monday, June 08, 2009

Integrated spirituality

If you open yourself to inspiration in all that you do, you will realise that you can be at peace with life, without resorting to the renunciate life of a monk, a nun or a sadhu.
n

Sunday, June 07, 2009

The 'Mystique' and 'Mystification' of Enlightenment and Liberation - Enlightenment in 'No Time'

The mystification of spirituality has left us culturally-conditioned to believe that spirituality is something that requires special and different conditions from the ones that we have here and now.

Enlightenment is not about developing, or improving yourself or attaining some state…

Enlightenment is an idea… that falls away when we drop the search, in peace and acceptance of the fullness of all that Is.


"There is no such thing as 'Enlightenment'... Understanding this is Enlightenment itself."
- Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
o

Union through whole-hearted surrender

Usually we may live experienceing the dualities of Love and fear, Union and separateness, Compassion and lack of empathy...

But giving oneself fully to anything - wholeheartedly - i.e. true devotion, leads to Union ('Yoga', in sanskrit). Anything less than a full surrender keeps us experiencing duality.

A divided mind has space for thoughts of self/'Ego'. An undivided mind is selfless...
o

Spirituality and the future of Religion

Nowadays there is some reservation concerning anything that is associated with religion and it is often stated that religion is responsible for war and the abuse of human rights. It ought to be pointed out, however, that it is the misrepresentation of religious teachings for selfish purposes that has led to justification for wars, persecution, abuse, etc.

We live in an age when the nature of religion and the nature of its spiritual foundations are being re-evaluated, but let’s not ‘throw out the baby with the bathwater’. New understanding can lead us onwards to new levels of global spiritual culture and to a new vision of the ‘brotherhood’/ ‘sisterhood’ of humankind and of all beings.
o

Meditation, Spiritual Awareness, Personal Transformation & Cultural Transformation

Forms of meditation have existed in all spiritual traditions as there is a clear connection between a state of receptivity and a state of Inspiration. ‘Inspiration’ means literally: ‘the inflow of Spirit/Divine Breath/Divine Awareness’. The word ‘inspiration’ has been used to describe all sorts of manifestations of ‘genius’ – from art to prophecy and even spiritual healing. Inspired individuals often experience deep personal transformation and have sometimes been responsible for great social, cultural transformations and even technological innovations.
o

Living with 'karma' and 'samsara'... or, 'abiding as the Self'

As the Self, you are free.
As anything else, you are just a character in a story that you are making up again... and again... and again...


"It is you that decides which 'I' you refer to, when you say 'I'"
- Ram Dass
o

Monday, May 04, 2009

"Connectedness"

The feeling of "connectedness" is an energetic resonance with the truth that transcends material/physical appearances, and leads naturally to 'virtue' and 'selflessness'.
o

Thursday, January 29, 2009

'From Relationship to Relating - Love as a State of Being' (quote from Osho)


“The capacity to be alone is the capacity to love. It may look paradoxical to you, but it is not. It is an existential truth: only those people who are capable of being alone are capable of love, of sharing, of going into the deepest core of the other person – without possessing the other, without becoming dependent on the other, without reducing the other to a thing, and without becoming addicted to the other. They allow the other absolute freedom, because they know that if the other leaves, they will be as happy as they are now. Their happiness cannot be taken by the other, because it is not given by the other.

Then why do they want to be together? It is no longer a need; it is a luxury. Try to understand it. Real persons love each other as a luxury; it is not a need. They enjoy sharing: they have so much joy, they would like to pour it into somebody. And they know how to play their life as a solo instrument.

The solo flute player knows how to enjoy his flute alone. And if he comes and finds a tabla player, a solo tabla player, they will enjoy being together and creating a harmony between the flute and the tabla. Both will enjoy it: they will both pour their richness into each other.

(Osho – from the book ‘Being In Love’)


Friday, September 22, 2006

Meditation - Easing yourself into Blissful Beingness

You do not need to directly restrain the mind or try to oppose its movements at all. The thinking mind tends to function like a mechanism that has been wound up and which consequently is impelled to follow its train of thought. To struggle with this - to try to control it - is pointless. This is where many experience the frustration of attempting and failing in their practice of meditation.
We are habitually identified with the mind and its movements - with its thought-content. It is a cliché because it has had to be repeated so often by spiritual teachers, but it is an essential truth: we are not the mind. We are the source of mind. We are consciousness, we are pure Awareness. We are the 'Being' - the 'I Am'. Dwelling in that pure awareness is Meditation.

o

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

... on Earth as it is in Heaven...

“True spirituality is not the rejection of (earthly) life, but the art of perfecting life.”
Rudolf Steiner
o

Mastery, Awareness & Non-dualism

“Each soul is potentially Divine. The goal of life is to manifest that Divinity within by controlling nature internal and external. Do it by philosophy or psychic control or work or worship, by one or more or all of these and be free.”
Swami Vivekananda


What is meant by ‘control’?
Control does not here imply ‘struggle’ and ‘conflict’, but simply gaining power over nature through awareness. This awareness overcomes the divisions between inside and outside, between conscious, sub-conscious and unconscious and brings about a natural ability to control without struggle or manipulation. This is Mastery. This is the secret of the Siddhas (Self-Realised Beings).
o

Light & dark

Why is there dark?
Because we do not put our full attention there…
Why do we not put our full attention there?
Because we are afraid.
The Light of Love eliminates fear and darkness, because it brings Light to the ‘dark spaces’.
Darkness exists only as a ‘reflection’ or shadow caused by our ignore-ance.

Darkness is not the opposite of Light. It is the shadow of Light – caused by us (‘I’ or ‘Ego’) standing in its way.

When we become translucent and radiant there will be no darkness.

Integrating the darkness turns it into Light.
o

Wednesday, February 01, 2006

Yin, Yang & the 'balance' - Divine harmony

'Brahma' - the Creator or 'creative force' exists in the balance beween the poles of preservation and dissolution.
'Brahma' exists in the harmonious interchange between hot and cold, light and dark, wet and dry, masculine and feminine, as the impulse for the expression of life.
('Brahma' was born out of 'Vishnu' and not vice versa)
Brahma is the point of origin but he 'himself' is found in the fusion/ the perfect interplay of 'Vishnu' and 'Shiva'.
'Heaven' is 'Brahma' ('Akasha') and is present. We 'fall' from 'heaven' whenever we are out of balance.
o

"Two types of madness"

According to Plato:
"... there are two types of madness, one arising from human disease, the other when heaven sets us free from established convention."
(from 'Phaedrus')
o