14. Seeing Through Illusions.

Have you ever stopped to notice how many times you are bombarded, in a single day, with other peoples images of what they think you are, or should be? Our own projections on the world around us and the people in it are equally off the mark.  It can be very revealing if one really takes the time to notice. 


Most of what goes on in our world, is geared to promote some kind of fantasy, some kind of unrealistic image of who and what we think we should/could be. We desperately need to take a look at all of this, to ask ourselves, is this true?


We need to step back, so that we can get a perspective, so that we can see through the 'silly stuff'. Because, basically most of it is precisely that, silly! 
Not important, not me, not you.


If we think of the most 'powerful people' in the world today; politicians, movie stars, artists, sports people, all those 'famous figures' who seem to have everything. Do any of them know who they really are?


Until each of us is able to answer this question for him/herself, we have a problem!  We remain vulnerable and prone to mistaken views. Powerful people die, powerful people suffer, powerful people, at the end of the day are no different from you or me.  The only true power we have, lies in knowing our real nature. 

Nisargadatta Maharaj said; 'undeceive yourself, you are not a person'.

All the people in this world who long for fame and name.  Who spend all their time and energy trying to be a somebody.  When, if the truth is known, we are all nobodies! 


'Undeceive yourself, you are not a person.'

You are not what you think you are...

13. Just As You Are.

Recognizing one's inner peace and happiness
 need not involve any discomfort or effort at all.

From the Temple at Adi Annamalai.

Does a fish know that the water in which it is swimming is the reason it can exist?  It lives out the entire little drama of its life quite unaware of this fact.  In the same way, we live, move and have our being within 'awareness' and yet never acknowledge it or are even aware of our dependence upon it for our very existence.  If there is a purpose in life, it must surely be to find out who and what we really are.


The mind is supreme in complicating what is the most simple and in this way deflects attention away from its source.  If we carefully and methodically investigate the nature of our thoughts; the nature of our minds, we can very soon understand that these thoughts have no basis; that there is no mind.


It is not enough to merely to hear this, one has to make an investigation with intention and focus.  For eons we have let mind rule our existence and it has run us a riot! The ocean of samsara is vast and it can enslave us with its facination for countless eons. Anything that the mind is capable of imaging is possible, because in samsara the mind is king. 


But focus the light of attention on this thing we call mind, and it just dissolves.
We can not pin point it, we can not see it, we can not find it.  


Are we the thoughts that arise in our minds? 


Or are we the nameless from which the thoughts arise?


This is not something which is far away from us, out there, and  beyond our reach.


We are that.


Ineffable peace at the heart of Awareness
You are Myself
In You we live, move and have our Being.

12. Investigating the Inevitable.

Remembering that our bodies are but transitory temples in this world,
gives us the power to remember what and who we really are...


Death is near, much nearer than we ever usually keep in mind. But it is not our true nature that dies, only the fragile body, our impermanent temple. We tend to live our lives as if they will continue forever, even though we know that every single person on the planet will face death sooner or later, including us.  Somehow our own death just does not register in our minds, as a reality.  It is something we hear about, happening somewhere else, to someone else.


Some might think that it is morbid to remember the fact of death. But it can also be empowering. The remembering brings us nearer to what we really are.  It gives our lives a perspective that is lacking when the mind is completely distracted by moment to moment happenings.  We have the choice to understand  this inevitable transition before it actually arrives.  Death is the critical moment when we are bound to face the fact that we are not the body; not what or who we think we are. By why wait until that moment when the realization can no longer be of benefit to us?


What is it that binds us with such a strong attachment to this body, this person? This is a question that only we can solve for ourselves, through our own personal investigations and experiences.
Only in this way can we begin to crack open the shell of our misconception as to our true nature.


In day to day life the force of our attention is scattered and diluted through being drawn outwardly by constant distractions.  If we gather this attention and focus it one-pointedly toward the question 'who am i?' mind soon finds that it is unable to proceed in thought.


The question, 'who am i'? takes one to the very edge of the mind, the edge of the known.  Beyond mind is what is.  Being itself.


To know this, one must be prepared to step beyond the confines of the mind, and face infinity. To say YES to the infinity that we really are. 


To BE infinity. 


Isn't it ironic, that the remembering of death, can be the very thing that can lead us to the realization of what it is in us that is deathless?

Ramana Maharshi. Part 2.

Ramana Ashram Archives.

To all who came to see him, from uneducated village women to the most learned of pundits, his teaching primarily consisted of the three words, "Who Am I?'

Self inquiry, was the corner stone of all spiritual advice that he gave. But he also spoke of two paths.  One is 'devotion' or surrender to 'that'.  The other is through 'self inquiry'. Depending upon ones natural characteristics either path would be a direct doorway to 'truth', for the sincere seeker.

One time someone asked him why he always told people to practice 'Self Inquiry,' or if this was not possible, then simply to 'surrender to God'.  Even to those whom it would seem could have little chance of ever following either path.  His reply was simply, that this advice, was the best that he knew, and that Self Inquiry and the path of Surrender are direct paths.  Why should he not give to all, the teaching which he knew was the simplest and the most direct? 


The Maharshi encouraged all seekers to follow one or the other. These would in no way interfere with their particular religious preferences or commitments. His teaching enhanced, rather than detracted from people's chosen paths.  But sooner or later all paths would unite in either the way of 'devotion' or 'self inquiry'. 

The Maharshi was a living example of Realization radiating through form. He quite simply was an embodiment of 'Truth'.  That 'Truth' shone through him so dynamically that it was utterly compelling for all who came within his influence. 

In the most natural possible way, the inexhaustible spring of 'awareness' which flowed through him so abundantly,  magnified that very same spring, in all those who came near, giving them a taste of 'what is', and opening the way to their own realization.  For those who were 'ready' the attraction of his 'Presence' was irresistible in its effect, and he precipitated the crisis of Realization in them, effortlessly.

Such is the power of an authentic Master.


 Uniting the qualities of wisdom and compassion, his influence continues to touch the hearts of countless beings.

The Maharshi and Laxmi.

11. He Who Beats The Drum.

Nisargadatta Maharaj.

"Use everything as an opportunity to go within!

  Ask Yourself - 'To whom does all this happen!'

  Light your way by burning up obstacles in the 

                    intensity of awareness."

To all appearances Nisargadatta Maharaj looked like a simple bidi (leaf-rolled cigarette) seller, a married man, plying his trade in order to support a wife and children.  His home was in a red light district of Bombay next to a public latrine.

He was a man who assumed no airs, and who bowed to none, but his Guru. A man whose eyes shone with an inner fire.  

One day a young Polish-man who had been living many years in India, Maurice Frydman, was strolling down a back lane in this Bombay district when he noticed this bidi seller in the midst of an animated conversation with several other men.

He had learnt to speak Marathi, the main dialect spoken in Maharastra, a state in the West of India.  So he was able to understand much of what was being spoken and it stopped him in his tracks.

Maurice Frydman had a knack of picking out 'jnanis' (liberated beings) even in the midst of an ordinary throng. While listening to the conversation taking place he was astounded at the wisdom and profound clarity of understanding of this 'simple bidi walla'.

He joined the group and listened carefully.  The following day he returned, and the next and many there after. In time he formed a close bond with Maharaj that lasted right up until his death.  Frydman wrote the spiritual classic, 'I Am That'. This book is essentially an english translation of talks and answers to questions put to Maharaj by the various people who came to visit him.


Nisargadatta Maharaj had been the most ordinary of men, until, one day a friend insisted that he come with him to meet his Guru.  Until that time Maharaj had strongly resisted all efforts of his friends to take him here or there to meet various teachers.  However this day, when his friend would not be put off, he grudgingly agreed to go along.


This teacher, whose name was Siddharameshwar Maharaj, told him quietly, that he was 'not what he thought himself to be'.  He gave him some simple instructions to 'pay attention to the sense "i am". 


 'I just obeyed.  I did not follow any particular course of breathing, or meditation, or study of scriptures.  Whatever happened, i turned my attention away from it and remained with the sense "i am".  It may look too simple, even crude.  My only reason for doing it was that my Guru told me so.  Yet it worked!'


Maharaj taught tirelessly, relentlessly and uncompromisingly about the truth of 'I Am'.


"By all means do feel lost!
 As long as you feel competent and confident,
 reality is beyond your reach.
 Unless you accept inner adventure as a way of life,
 discovery will not come to you.
 Be nothing,
 Know nothing,
 Have nothing.
 This is the only life worth living,
 The only happiness worth having."


Nisargadatta Maharaj.

10. Ramana Maharshi. The Sage of Arunachala.

Sri Ramana Maharshi.

" Do you know what Moksha (liberation) is?


   Getting rid of non-existent misery and


   attaining the bliss which is always there,  that is Moksha."


                                                                      
Sri Ramana Maharshi, was the living embodiment of a Master, par excellence.


He led a life of utter simplicity and  humility. This man could have passed for any one of millions of Indian men, in appearance.  Yet, in the quietest and most unassuming manner he had the whole world bowing at his feet.


From princes to paupers, from the old to the young, from the richest to the most humble in circumstance.  Animals of various kinds were also inexplicably attracted to this man.   All manner of people and from all corners of the globe were drawn to him like the iron filings to a magnet.


Yet, here was an uneducated man, who never traveled anywhere.  Whose wanderings in five and a half decades took him no further than the circumference of a modest 'hill', in a small dusty town, in the South of India.


His story is remarkable and has been told countless times, but it has such a profound significance for us all that it can bare retelling endlessly. 


 At only sixteen years of age, for no reason that could be outwardly accounted for, he felt that he was about to die.  This inexplicable certainty, arising as it did, seemingly out of nowhere, was so shocking that it had the effect of turning his mind inward.


Normally we move through life with our minds always attuned towards the world and it 'happenings'. In other words, 'outwardly'.   When the mind is focused 'inwardly' however, even if only for a short time, one has the opportunity to see 'what is'. The intense fear of being suddenly confronted with 'death' focused all the boy's energy into looking at 'what it actually is' that is going to 'die'. 


He realized that the very awareness, that knows itself as "I" is in actuality, the only thing that 'exists'.  Realizing this completely transformed his life. Tears of joy and gratitude flowed like a river during those early days and he lost all interest in worldly living. 


When the 'vase' (body) that contained the 'air' (awareness) was shattered by the realization of its true nature, it simply became one with the greater atmosphere, (air). There was no inherent 'change' as such.


How could there be? To put it metaphorically,  air, however it is contained, is always air...


To be continued...

9. Do Not Be Distracted.

Adi Annamalai.

Even in the very midst of the myriad demands of day to day life it is possible to find moments of peace.

We live in times that are  saturated by the media, instant communications and electromagnetic 'noise'.  Often we can feel that we are hurled along in a kind of vacuum over which it seems we have
very little control.  This gives us the sense of constant and almost endless 'busyness'.  A feeling that life is rushing by and we are merely trying to stay abreast of events.

Even in sleep we are often visited by the procession of images that bombard us during our waking hours.

Therefore it is very vital to know how to find moments in the midst of all of this, to just 'be'.  Moments that can enable us to re establish a point of balance.

Distraction is the state of our day to day lives.  The demands of our work, our families our friends our various and many commitments all drive us to be continually engaged in outer activities that drive us away from the natural state of harmony that is our own true nature.

To find the inner point of balance does not require any special conditions it is just a simple turning of the mind in towards itself.  Knowing oneself as the 'witness' of all that is going on gives us a sense of freedom and reconnects us to our innate inner stillness.

'Do not be distracted', can become a mantra during our busy day to day activities, a hub of silence in the great wheel of life, which, although everything is spinning around it, yet it remains at the center, unmoved, unaffected...