every day a miracle – Thay

Elk River Southern Oregon USA

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“Every day we are engaged in a miracle we don’t even realize.”

Thich Nhat Hanh ..*

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Rocks, water, trees, sunlight. Nothing unusual and yet wondrous.

What does it take for me to wake up right now to this most amazing happening?

Can I stop and in this moment recognize the ‘what so’ of my life? What material things surround me that I can give fresh appreciation to? What thoughts and feelings do I have right now? Is each of them precious to me and can I cherish them? What things are given to me as ‘possessions’ according to the social context I am located in right now – about what do I say “I own this”? What other things are given to me in stewardship to interact with and care for, if even just for a moment or longer? What is it that is occupying my field of perception, my mind? Can I see and feel the ‘infinite Being at the roots of our own limited being’, as Thomas Merton calls it? Or am I completely possessed by the things and circumstances of my present physical and emotional location? Have I lost the sense of Mystery of this eternal and infinite Existence within which I find myself embedded?

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fifteen minutes of 24 hours – Anandamayi Ma

 

 

“God gives us 24 hours a day, can’t we give Him fifteen minutes of quiet meditation ?”

Sri Anandamayi Ma

 

Anandamayi Ma – excerpt from the biography by Richard Lannoy

“Throughout Indian history, this pattern of instruction ensured the transmission of knowledge from one generation to the next. In the case of Anandamayi who did not herself have a Guru, but was self-initiated, the traditional model of the teacher and the taught has, in certain respects, taken on new life, but in other equally important respects she radically departed from tradition.

“Her role as a revered Brahmin divine was by no means orthodox since this was a departure from the traditional status parameters of the married woman; further, for some 50 years as a widow and thus a member of the lowliest rank of Indian society, she was at the same time one of the most sought after of all spiritual teachers.

awareness

“Awareness is primordial; it is the original state,

beginning-less, endless, un-caused, un-supported,

without parts, without change.

Consciousness is on contact,

a reflection against a surface,

a state of duality.

There can be no consciousness without awareness,

but there can be awareness

without consciousness, as in deep sleep.

Awareness is absolute,

consciousness is relative to its content;

consciousness is always of something.”

~ Nisargadatta Maharaj

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only love can drive out hate – MLK Jr.

 

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it…”

~Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Practice until you see yourself in the cruelest person on Earth, in the child starving, in the political prisoner. Continue until you recognize yourself in everyone in the supermarket, on the street corner, in a concentration camp, on a leaf, in a dewdrop. Meditate until you see yourself in a speck of dust in a distant galaxy. See and listen with the whole of your being. If you are fully present, the rain of Dharma will water the deepest seeds in your consciousness, and tomorrow, while you are washing the dishes or looking at the blue sky, that seed will spring forth, and love and understanding will appear as a beautiful flower.”

~Thich Nhat Hanh

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serene encounter with reality

Meditation is not evasion.

It is a serene encounter with reality –

Thich Nhat Hanh

 Repose

Unruffled Calmness

Serene Joy

Blissful Peace

The surroundings cause no fluctuations.

The physical world is an integral part of Reality.

Be the real Self of man, the timeless and spaceless Being

out of whom both mind and body

derive their existence and maintain their existence.

source p. 53, 54

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Ramana Maharshi Self Inquiry Meditation

 

Question: You say one can realize the Self by a search for it. What is the character of this search?
Ramana Maharshi: You are the mind or think that you are the mind. The mind is nothing but thoughts. Now behind every particular thought there is a general thought, which is the ‘I’, that is yourself. Let us call this ‘I’ the first thought. Stick to this ‘I’ -thought and question it to find out what it is. When this question takes strong hold on you, you cannot think of other thoughts.

Question : When I do this and cling to my self, that is, the `I’-thought, other thoughts come and go, but I say to myself `Who am I ?’ and there is no answer forthcoming. To be in this condition is the practice. Is it so?
Ramana Maharshi :  This is a mistake that people often make. What happens when you make a serious quest for the Self is that the `I’-thought disappears and something else from the depths takes hold of you and that is not the `I’ which commenced the quest.

Question : What is this something else?
Ramana Maharshi :  That is the real Self, the import of `I’. It is not the ego. It is the Supreme Being itself.

I was not

 

“I didn’t know I was, presently I know I am, this is the same “I” with the knowingness mantle over it. This is the way the very Absolute transformed Itself into this grosser consciousness state, the state of appearance.”

“Nobody wants to inquire about the Self deeply and thoroughly, everybody inquires on a superficial level.” (Nisargadatta, Prior to Consciousness p. 54)

I was not. Then suddenly, I was. It feels like I am, but actually, I am not. If I had known what a trap I was getting into, I would not have gone into my mother’s womb. This sounds like a rejection of being alive, but it is not. It is neither rejection nor acceptance. This is the fine line of the paradox that my consciousness has to walk in order to find my way out of the labyrinth of consciousness.

be calm in your heart

I don’t mind – Mooji

The simple statement: “I don’t mind” is very deep when seen in the context of our habitual choosing and rejecting of life circumstances. The modern sage Krishnamurti once asked his audience: “Would you like to know my secret?” It was clear that of course everyone wanted to hear his secret and all were in high anticipation. He then simply said: “I don’t mind.”

love: this is the message – Eckhart Tolle