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But what all this boils down to is that I was really a very good game player.
“To him who has had the experience no explanation is necessary, to him who has not, none is possible.”
Everybody, parents, colleagues, public, saw it as a horrible thing; I thought inside “I must really be crazy, now—because craziness is where everybody agrees about something,—except you!” And yet I felt saner than I had ever felt, so I knew this was a new kind of craziness or perhaps a new kind of saneness.
if you see yourself as God and then you come back from this state and somebody says, “Hey, Sam, empty the garbage!” it catches you back into the model of “I’m Sam who empties the garbage.” You can’t maintain these new kinds of structures. It takes a while to realize that God can empty garbage.
And during these travels he’s starting to train me in a most interesting way. We’d be sitting somewhere and I’d say, “Did I ever tell you about the time that Tim and I . . .” And he’d say, “Don’t think about the past. Just be here now.” Silence. And I’d say, “How long do you think we’re going to be on this trip?” And he’d say, “Don’t think about the future. Just be here now.” I’d say, “You know, I really feel crumby, my hips are hurting . . .” “Emotions are like waves. Watch them disappear in the distance on the vast calm ocean.” He had just sort of wiped out my whole game.
And suddenly I realized that he knew everything that was going on in my head, all the time, and that he still loved me. Because who we are is behind all that.
This manual concerns no more or no less than the living of daily life. At first you “do” sadhana (work on the spiritual path) within certain time and space boundaries, such as going to church on Sunday mornings, or getting high on Saturday nights, or meditating each morning. Eventually, it turns out that SADHANA IS EVERYTHING YOU DO.
You might think of renunciation in terms of some external act like a New Year’s resolution, or leaving family and friends to go off to a cave. But renunciation is much more subtle than that—and much harder—and much much more continuing. On the spiritual journey, renunciation means non-attachment. To become free of attachment means to break the link identifying you with your desires. The desires continue; they are part of the dance of nature. But a renunciate no longer thinks that he is his desires.
As you get further on the path you will need less and less sleep.
Why ?
Remember to avoid thinking “I am doing an asana.” Just experience the asana happening. Working with your eyes closed will help.
Thoughts continue as a natural process in nature, but you run them through on automatic (base brain)—the same way most people drive an automobile, that is, without attending to each movement of the accelerator or steering wheel. We function under the fallacy (cogito ergo sum) that we are our thoughts and therefore must attend to them in order for them to be realized. To break your identification with your own thoughts is to achieve inner freedom.
Why are we using mantras that are in the Sanskrit language? Wouldn’t it be better to use English? No. Sanskrit is the root of the Indo-Aryan languages of which English is a part. It is a language that was evolved consciously, i.e., each sound syllable resonates in a specific chakra.
Interesting
You must see that all beings are just beings . . . and that all the wrappings of personality and role and body are the coverings. Your attachments are only to the coverings, and as long as you are attached to someone else’s covering you are stuck, and you keep them stuck, in that attachment.
To be “not caught” means to be unattached. To be unattached does not mean to be uninvolved, it means to be involved “without attachment.”
“He who has so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own disposition will waste his life in fruitless efforts.”—Samuel Johnson
The witness could be thought of as an eye . . . or “I” which sees, though it does not look. That is, it is not an active thing. It just sees it all happening.
This sounds like Ekhart Tolle.
“How does the emancipated soul live in the world? He lives in the world like a diver bird. It dives into water, but the water does not wet its plumage; the few drops of water which may possibly stick to its body are easily jerked off when it once flaps its wing.”—Ramakrishna
The way in which the term meditation is used in yoga is in the more formal and disciplined sense. As such it is distinguished from reflection or contemplation. It includes two processes: making the mind concentrated or one-pointed, and bringing to total cessation the turning of the mind.
Don’t try to suppress them (for that is just another thought). Rather, note the intruding thought, give it a label, and return to the task at hand.
Following the highest sound, you may have a fever for twenty-four hours. This will only occur when you arrive at a very high level of purification.
huh?
“Right mindfulness snatches the pearl of Freedom from the Dragon Time.”—Heart of Buddhist Meditation
“There are no impediments to meditation. The very thought of such obstacles is the greatest impediment.”—Ramana Maharshi
There is no need to seek truth, only stop having views.”—Seng T’san
“Our existence as embodied beings is purely momentary; what are a hundred years in eternity? But if we shatter the chains of egotism, and melt into the ocean of humanity, we share its dignity. To feel that we are something is to set up a barrier between God and ourselves; to cease feeling that we are something is to become one with God.”—Gandhi
Ask yourself: Where am I? Answer: Here. Ask yourself: What time is it? Answer: Now. Say it until you can hear it. 2. Set alarm clocks or design your day or put up notes on the wall so that a number of times during the day when you are in the midst of various occupations you confront yourself with the questions: (a) Where Am I? and then answer (see answer below) (b) What time is it? and then answer (see answer below) Each time you do this, try to feel the immediacy of the Here and Now. Begin to notice that wherever you go or whatever time it is by the clock . . . it is ALWAYS HERE AND NOW. In
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“A Zen student must learn to waste time conscientiously.”—Suzuki Roshi
You must live before you can die. But you must die before you can live. Live consciously! Die consciously!
Each time we can “let go”—of goals, of our ego-image compulsions, of controlling, of driving ourselves—and BE instead of DO, we die (as ego) and are reborn (as Self, as Buddha).
