Insert a spiritual teaching or quote

Will comment on that qoute in a bit.

I really like this video

 

Profound words

 

Thanks for your post brother

"The actions of a great man are an inspiration for others. Whatever he does becomes a standard for others to follow."
-The Bhagavad Gita

"As the kindled fire consumes the fuel, so in the flame of wisdom the embers of action are burnt to ashes."
-The Bhagavad Gita

"The self-controlled soul, who moves amongst sense objects, free from either attachment or repulsion, he wins eternal Peace."
-The Bhagavad Gita

"It is both near and far, both within and without every creature; it moves and is unmoving. In its subtlety it is beyond comprehension. It is invisible, yet appears divided in separate creatures. Know it to be the creator, the preserver, and the destroyer. Dwelling in every heart, it is beyond darkness. It is called the light of the lights, the object and goal of knowledge, and knowledge itself."
-The Bhagavad Gita

Best of luck on your journey, and take care

 

"Know what is in front of your face and what is hidden from you will be disclosed" - Gospel of Thomas

 

The Maharshi speaks again, his words breaking into my thoughts:

“Unless and until a man embarks upon this quest of the true Self, doubt and uncertainty will follow his footsteps throughout life. The greatest kings and statesmen try to rule others, when in their heart of hearts they know that they cannot rule themselves. Yet the greatest power is at the command of the man who has penetrated to his inmost depth. There are men of giant intellects who spend their lives gathering knowledge about many things. Ask these men if they have solved the mystery of man, if they have conquered themselves, and they will hang their heads in shame. What is the use of knowing about everything else when you do not yet know who you are? Men avoid this enquiry into the true Self, but what else is there so worthy to be undertaken?”

“That is such a difficult, superhuman task,” I comment. The Sage gives an almost imperceptible shrug of his shoulders.

“The question of its possibility is a matter of one’s own experience. The difficulty is less real than you think.”

“For us, who are active, practical Westerners, such introspections . . . . . ?” I begin doubtfully and leave my sentence trailing in midair.

The Maharshi bends down to light a fresh joss stick, which will replace one whose red spark is dying out.

“The realization of truth is the same for both Indians and Europeans. Admittedly the way to it may be harder for those who are engrossed in worldly life, but even then one can and must conquer. The current induced during meditation can be kept up by habit, by practising to do so. Then one can perform his work and activities in that very current itself; there will be no break. Thus, too there will be no difference between meditation and external activities. If you meditate on this question, ‘Who am I?’, if you begin to perceive that neither the body nor the brain nor the desires are really you, then the very attitude of enquiry will eventually draw the answer to you out of the depths of your own being; it will come to you of its own accord as a deep realization.”

Again I ponder his words.

“Know the real Self,” he continues, “and then the truth will shine forth within your heart like sunshine. The mind will become untroubled and real happiness will flood it; for happiness and the true self are identical. You will have no more doubts once you attain this Self-awareness.”

He turns his head and fixes his gaze at the far end of the hall. I know then that he has reached his conversational limit. Thus ends our last talk and I congratulate myself that I have drawn him out of the shell of taciturnity before my departure.

I leave him and wander away to a quiet spot in the jungle, where I spend most of the day among my notes and books. When dusk falls I return to the hall, for within an hour or two a pony-carriage or a bullock-cart will arrive to bear me away from the hermitage.

Burning incense makes the air odorous. The Maharshi has been half reclining under the waving punkah as I enter but he soon sits up and assumes his favourite attitude. He sits with legs crossed, the right foot placed on the left thigh and the left foot merely folded beneath the right thigh. I remember being shown a similar position by Brama, the yogi who lives near Madras, who called it “The Comfortable Posture.” It is really a half-Buddha posture and quite easy to do. The Maharshi, as is his wont, holds his chin with his right hand and rests the elbow on a knee; next he gazes attentively at me but remains quite silent. On the floor beside him I notice his gourd-shell, water jug and

his bamboo staff. They are his sole earthly possessions, apart from the strip of loin-cloth. What a mute commentary on our Western spirit of acquisitiveness!

His eyes, always shining, steadily become more glazed and fixed; his body sets into a rigid pose; his head trembles slightly and then comes to rest. A few more minutes and I can plainly see that he has re-entered the trance like condition in which he was when I first met him. How strange that our parting shall repeat our meeting! Someone brings his face close to mine and whispers in my ear, “The Maharshi has gone into holy trance. It is useless now to talk.”

A hush falls upon the little company. The minutes slowly pass but the silence only deepens. I am not religious but I can no more resist the feeling of increasing awe which begins to grip my mind than a bee can resist a flower in all its luscious bloom. The hall is becoming pervaded with a subtle, intangible and indefinable power which affects me deeply. I feel, without doubt and without hesitation, that the centre of this mysterious power is no other than the Maharshi himself.

His eyes shine with astonishing brilliance. Strange sensations begin to arise in me. Those lustrous orbs seem to be peering into the inmost recesses of my soul. In a peculiar way, I feel aware of everything he can see in my heart. His mysterious glance penetrates my thoughts, my emotions and my desires; I am helpless before it. At first this disconcerting gaze troubles me; I become vaguely uneasy. I feel that he has perceived pages that belong to a past which I have forgotten. He knows it all, I am certain. I am powerless to escape; somehow, I do not want to, either. Some curious intimation of future benefit forces me to endure that pitiless gaze.

And so he continues to catch the feeble quality of my soul for a while, to perceive my motley past, to sense the mixed emotions which have drawn me this way and that. But I feel that he understands also what mind-devastating quest has impelled me to leave the common way and seek out such men as he.

There comes a perceptible change in the telepathic current which plays between us, the while my eyes blink frequently but his remain without the least tremor. I become aware that he is definitely linking my own mind with his; that he is provoking my heart into that state of starry calm which he seems perpetually to enjoy. In this extraordinary peace, I find a sense of exaltation and lightness. Time seems to stand still. My heart is released from its burden of care. Never again, I feel, shall the bitterness of anger and the melancholy of unsatisfied desire afflict me. I realize deeply that the profound instinct which is innate in the race, which bids man look up, which encourages him to hope on, and which sustains him when life has darkened, is a true instinct, for the essence of being is good. In this beautiful, entranced silence, when the clock stands still and the sorrows and errors of the past seem like trivialities, my mind is being submerged in that of the Maharshi and wisdom is now at its perihelion. What is this man’s gaze but a thaumaturgic wand, which evokes a hidden world of unexpected splendour before my profane eyes?

I have sometimes asked myself why these disciples have been staying around the Sage for years, with few conversations, fewer comforts and no external activities to attract them. Now I begin to understand — not by thought but by lightning like illumination — that through all those years they have been receiving a deep and silent reward.

Hitherto, everyone in the hall has been hushed to a deathlike stillness. At length, someone quietly rises and passes out. He is followed by another, and then another, until all have gone.

I am alone with the Maharshi! Never before has this happened. His eyes begin to change; they narrow down to pin-points. The effect is curiously like the “stopping-down” in the focus of a camera lens. There comes a tremendous increase in the intense gleam which shines between the lids, now almost closed. Suddenly, my body seems to disappear, and we are both out in space!

It is a crucial moment. I hesitate — and decide to break this enchanter’s spell. Decision brings power and once again I am back in the flesh, back in the hall.

No word passes from him to me. I collect my faculties, look at the clock, and rise quietly. The hour of departure has arrived.

I bow my head in farewell. The Sage silently acknowledges the gesture. I utter a few words of thanks. Again, he silently nods his head.

I linger reluctantly at the threshold. Outside, I hear the tinkle of a bell. The bullock cart has arrived. Once more I raise my hands, palms touching.

And so we part.

-Paul Brunton

 

I am vaguely familiar with Dzogchen only because it's gained a lot of popularity amongst meditators in the United States, but I think I wrote before about how I think I had a spiritual awakening in my early 20s, or rather a moment into insight, that caused me to drop the notion of being an atheist. I bring this up because I would describe it similar to how this post describes Dzogchen meditation, it is something that seems vaguely accessible through Vipassana meditation (and, now that I'm almost on my 5th year of meditating, it is becoming more a reality every day), but ultimately I became extremely fascinated with the teachings of Jesus as laid out in the Gospels. The latter part is obvious and I don't have the energy to write a post that long, and I'd like to address your post moreso; I only mention that so that I don't create the facade of being a Buddhist expert or even a Buddhist.

When I had my experience, I felt like I was experiencing reality and the self in all its nakedness. There was an extreme sense of tranquility, almost (paradoxically) to the point of anxiety, and reality looked both the same and somehow it had transformed into a state of transcendent beauty, as if I was looking at a painting of reality of an artist who had both infinite skill and infinite creativity and had intended his painting to look as beautiful as possible without betraying form, skill, and imagination. I've tried psychedelics, and I would say that anyone that has experimented with psychedelics will be vaguely familiar with this state, though ultimately I don't know if I recommend psychedelics and I don't think they capture its essence entirely.

Your quote reminds me of this a lot. It was naked reality and naked emotion. In meditation, one of the most attractive qualities was letting the mind do what it will and observing. Observe physical sensations, emotional states, etc. without judgment. They are there, do not push them away but watch them. Also seems in line with what Dzogchen teaches. In learning that you are in a state of anxiety, you actually spare yourself the energy of resisting anxiety. And when you concentrate on the breath instead of the story that is playing in your head because of anxiety, you can feel anxiety as it is. It also liberates your mind from being controlled by whatever state you are experiencing. This is an immensely powerful and freeing state, though one incredibly hard to master.

I love some of the tenants of Buddhism, I just went down a different path because I find it to be a nice aid but (no offense to Buddhists, just stating my case) I think Christ laid out a more complete spiritual scripture. I'm also only familiar with Buddhism through vague interest in meditation and am not an expert on it.

I'm working on a thought right now in response to this, because in a lot of Roman literature the serpent is depicted as wise; it has a dual nature. I remember a few years ago I read this quote by the Scientology found L. Ron Hubbard, who in my mind seems like someone who peered deeply into evil out of need and became too fascinated with it (this actually happens to Sarumon in the Lord of the Rings books; in the books, Sarumon studies evil like Gandalf studies Hobbits, and Gandalf visits Sarumon because he thinks his knowledge of evil will help him. He arrives and Sarumon has become evil himself, because he's seen good in evil through his mastery and knowledge of it-- that's a whole different rant lol). Anyways, the quote by Hubbard went like "Learn from serpents; do not be afraid of them. They are wise." It struck me because the snake, as I've mentioned, is often wise in Roman culture, like Glaucon the God of literature in some Roman pantheons.

 

My training in symbolism is still very basic, but I know its the most basic way we view the world.

Not usually literally, but different animals take on different meaning.

 

The lion too has a dual nature.

Jesus is the Lion of Judah

But the first beast has the head of a lion.