Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Yogani
Read between
February 26 - March 15, 2022
It will be we who have changed, and we will see more truth in all expressions of knowledge as we continue to open to our native awareness inside.
Gleening mlre understanding and knowledge fr the Bible.
there is a natural progression in our spiritual unfoldment which occurs over time, usually over a long time, except in the rare cases of people who are born near enlightenment. In spite of what we may have heard, enlightenment is not an overnight event for most people. There is no getting around this, because each of us must go through a process of inner purification and opening, and it takes time, even with the best of teachings. Along the way, there are grades and stages, and the journey never ends, even for those who are very advanced.
There is a distinction between one who is truly enlightened and one who has created a division between themselves and the rest of the world through non-relational self-inquiry, enforced by a rigid intellectual view. With clear relational self-inquiry based in stillness, we can reject this out of hand. Neti neti!
True enlightenment is the spontaneous outpouring of divine love, which is working constantly to uplift everyone.
Advice will be coming from all directions, especially as our spiritual desire (bhakti) is rising. When the student is ready, the teacher will appear. More likely many teachers!
is up to us to honor our nature and where we happen to be on our path, and proceed accordingly. In the AYP writings, we call this self-pacing, which is a very important component when undertaking any spiritual practice.
A High Path.
In general, it is not a good idea to try and live our life according to the dictates of someone else, particularly if our inner voice is telling us that something is not right in the circumstance we may find ourselves in.
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From this point of view, the highest teaching is the one that enables the most people to directly realize the truth of existence quickly and easily.
All teachings have benefit, but no teaching covers all aspects of the process of human spiritual transformation. So it is good to keep an open mind, and be willing to make the choices that are necessary to move ahead. No teacher can make these choices for us. We have to take responsibility for our own spiritual progress. The greatest teacher is within us.
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But are they true stories? If we ask this lovingly when they begin to play, with a desire to know, in the stillness of our abiding witness, we will know the truth. Then what is not true will gradually peel off, or dissolve. When this process becomes a central part of our experience, it is a huge liberation. It is the point where we truly begin to discriminate – making informed choices about what is real in our life, and what is not. In this situation, we will find for the first time that we are able to consciously reverse habitual identifications we have harbored for life.
Doing this by rational thinking alone is very difficult, so we bring in the witness with the easy procedure daily deep meditation. This adds the necessary additional dimension of awareness that is beyond time and space, making effective self-inquiry possible.
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Perhaps this is why the yogis call it sat-chit-ananda, which means eternal bliss consciousness. Such experiences, described afterward, are not uncommon for those who engage in deep meditation.
If we are doing self-inquiry with the presence of the witness, we will not fall into the trap of denying life as it is. Instead we will find ourselves coming more and more into the condition of becoming life as it is, which can also be described as being in the world but not of the world. This is real Oneness, real non-duality.
Yes! I am that!
Patanjali’s eight limbs of yoga include: Yama (restraints – non-violence, truthfulness, non-stealing, preservation and cultivation of sexual energy, and non-covetousness) Niyama (observances – purity, contentment, spiritual intensity, study of spiritual knowledge and Self, and active surrender to the divine) Asana (postures and physical maneuvers) Pranayama (breathing techniques) Pratyahara (introversion of the senses) Dharana (systematic attention on an object) Dhyana (meditation – systematic dissolving of the object) Samadhi (absorption in pure consciousness)
