I wonder....

I wonder if Adam and Eve jumped the gates of Eden, because they were bored ?

I wonder if the Perfect became the mundane, just for a lark?

I wonder if thinking is a software virus embedded in us by some cosmic hacker?

I wonder if we humans are just flesh-and-blood robots in the service of eternal DNA?

I wonder if parallel universes are just endless reflections in a non-existent Hall of Mirrors?

I wonder who is wondering ...
seems familiar.
( I just know i've heard that chuckle before...all those many lifetimes ago.)


Ooops! Here we go again....
singing them cosmic giggle blues, one more time!

Simple Master

I spent endless aeons seeking the unseekable.

I ran through a thousand lifetimes in the wink of an eternal eye.
I read all the sacred books and studied all the secret lore.
I wriggled my chakras, exploded in kundalini, absorbed my angels and my demons, unfurled my DNA.
Workshops , satsangs, retreats and intensives , meditations, contemplations, alchemical transformations...such a circus of effort , rollercoaster ride on so many rainbows!

What a total waste of time!

Who can understand the ways of the One who has dissolved in Brahman?
You look at him and see an ordinary old man.
Simple. Innocent. Just being, here and now. Doing what happens effortlessly.
Indeed the saints and sages will bear witness : it is mystifyingly impossible to describe the extra-ordinarily ordinary.

Like the Tao, he blends perfectly with the flow...and is invisible, unknowable.

Yet to the eye of the Heart, he blazes like a million suns!

No-mind

In the land of no-mind, who is king?
Is it the scent of jasmine wafted on the stillness or the hint of music in that silence?
Is it the bodiless bird soaring in the cloudless sky or the upside-down tree waving its roots at the stars?
Where there is no I , who sees?
Mists of illusion cannot survive the dawning of this Sun.
Go there.
All questions cease.

A busy man

Birds are singing, alarm bells ringing, new day dawning, wake up! its morning..
OoooH ! I'm a busy man. A very busy man - with lots to do.
Shave and shower and breakfast in an hour, emails answered and out the door
Jump in the car and drive in the traffic,  so much to do today,long way to go
OoooH ! I'm a busy man. A very busy man - with lots to do.
Appointments, meetings, coffee and greetings, bills and money and paperwork
Cell-phones buzzing, deadlines hustling, people talking, deals a-walking,
OoooH ! I'm a busy man. A very busy man - with lots to do.

Shhh! Don't tell anyone, it's all just  fun, nowhere i'm going, just simply flowing
I do nothing, lost deep in loving, body does his thing, mind does his thing,

AaaaH! I'm a dancing tune. A leaf on a river- with nothing to do!

I've lost my history, sunk in mystery, breathing the air , feeling magic everywhere!
In the eye of the storm, it's so still and so warm, no thought, no harm, so silent, so calm-

AaaaH! I'm a flute being played. An empty blue sky- no idea who!

No Excuses

I have no excuses left.
Nowhere left to pass the buck, no one left to blame.
Experiential knowing is total and ruthless- a sword that cuts off my head!
But still, like a phantom limb that seems to hurt or itch even after it has been amputated, my head re-appears, tries its best to bring my story back to life.
Sounds familiar?
You know.
Beyond doubt.
You let go of moth-hood and became the flame.
Not once, but a million times. Over a million lifetimes.
Why bother with moth thoughts and feelings and dreams and desires anymore?
Is it so hard to let go and drop the garbage of the aeons that you have been carrying on your head?
Like me - you have run out of excuses.
Throw away that phantom head.  Dive without hesitation into the abyss!
Be the One and be free!

No- thing

No-thing is not nothing.

It is the absolute potential from which all things spring forth.
It is the womb that contains and holds all the universes.

It is the formless, silent, motionless Perfection that is the Great Mother of all creation...and woven like warp and weft into the very fabric of  energy-matter.
It is the eternal and infinite Centre that is our true  Home.
Here there is no desire, no attachment, no negative energy.
Here there is deep peace and joy.
Become No-thing.
And dance with everything.

Being Love

Can you hear the wind whispering secrets to the trees- your voice in that whisper , your ears those boughs and leaves? Can you see how fire and air and  earth and  water dance together in such sweet harmony?
In the blush of a fading sunset , can you see yellow flowers silhouetted against the sky and melt in abandon at the magic and the wonder of it all?
Can there be anything more wondrous than the taste of the serene perfection that is the source and the substance of all things?
You are that perfection, that pure love and joy and peace.
Be who you really are- rise in love with your Self, until you are like an overflowing fountain.
Close your eyes and be drunk with that ecstasy:
 Love will radiate from you like sunshine, blessing every one and everything.
This is the only meditation.

Eternal sunrise

Drunk.This intoxication is total and forever...what power in this wine!
Everything dissolves here- only the infinite emptiness remains awake and aware.
No name, no form, no words or thoughts.
No doer, nothing done, everything happens. No eye, nothing to see. No ear, yet silence sings.
Just perfect stillness , like the eye of the cyclone...though the winds roar ferocious all around.
Like the vortex of a whirlpool, drawing inexorably down into the Center.
This is how it feels to disappear, like a dewdrop in the sun - shining silver for one brief lifetime before it vanishes into the air.
Eternal sunrise..and nobody there!
Ahhhhhhhhh!

Sinking

I shut my eyes, but my mind still spins visions of improbable worlds.

I stop up my ears, but  my mind still echoes with endless sounds.

I close the door of all five senses: alas! Still no peace to be found!

I give up in total surrender and sink like a stone into me.

Mind drowns in the Heart and dissolves

 like a lump of salt in the sea.

Listen , my friend - die NOW before the body dies.

And be free.

Butterfly Awakening.

Like a caterpillar, I weave my cocoon

Threads of myself spinning into a shell;

I disappear in a liquid love

Whose heartbeat is transformation.

Miraculously I take form again-

So dazzling, the splendour of my wings!

I become a song of praise

Drifting from blossom to blossom

Sipping sweet magic

In the sunlight

of a new life.

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Inside-Outside

The outside is always a reflection of the inside.

Very small shifts inside can lead to major miracles on the outside.

Once you figure this out, by trial and error, you begin to understand how this Universe works.

Vibration is the key.

Tune the inside so it is in harmony with the vibration of the Universe.

Instinct is better than intellect ;gut is stronger than brain; heart is all.

Deep inside your own being, you will discover the magical portal.

Step through- and you disappear!

Only magic remains- inside and outside and everywhere.

Its so simple that it seems complex.

You become the eye of the storm, the still centre of the hurricane.

All you do is stay there.

Life will go on with greater intensity: but the centre will remain motionless, still, silent.

The only way to check it out is to play with your own inner tuning.

Harmony is Being and Consciousness and Bliss.

Become it- and you will find it everywhere.

And miracles will effortlessly appear.

That is how it is.

Secret Song

Where spirit dwells in silence,
who hears, without ears,
the secret song?
Blood and breath are zither and trombone,
Atoms and cells play infinite percussion
Keeping prana's perfect time;
Stars and mountains, rivers and trees swell in a vast, voiceless chorus,
Silently trumpeting the undying truth :
There is only love.
I cannot say I heard this song.
The moment its lightnings touched me, I disappeared!
Now only the song remains:
Perfect bliss :
nectar of peace
sweeter than a mother's kiss!

Conversations with the Mirror

How do I have to be in order for the world to be whole again?

Your mind asks this question. Drop your mind and just be.

Is that not selfish? Seeking a personal peace and bliss while the whole world goes insane?

The world's insanity is a reflection of your own insanity. Become truly sane and the world will be sane.

So I do nothing?

In any case , YOU always do nothing. You cannot even take a breath without the universe providing you air with just the right amount of oxygen. Just BE - totally and completely. All actions will flow as they are meant to flow.

I'm tired of hearing your mystic mush. You want me to just sit here doing nothing while children starve and millions of human beings suffer and the whole earth is being destroyed by greed and madness?

Whatever your body must do will be done...the perfect action will emerge effortlessly when you are centred in being. The greatest service you can ever perform for the planet and all living beings on it is to FIRST find your own true identity with the ONE that underlies everything.

Can I, just one human being, really make a difference to anything?

If you see yourself as the drop you will always remain the drop. If you let go of your "drophood" and dissolve in the ocean, you will become the ocean. Please hurry up and do this: only the ocean can get all the drops together in one mighty and perfect whole. And, more importantly, if you become the ocean you will finally stop asking me all these stupid questions!

The Heart

The Heart is not the physical organ that pumps blood.
Nor is it the Heart-chakra of Kundalini yoga.
The Heart is another dimension : the hidden cave of the Self.
It is that secret place where the ego-mind complex dissolves in deep sleep and arises from on waking.
If you dive deep within your innermost being and consciously enter this Heart, the ego-mind complex dissolves totally and forever in it.
Then the true Self shines forth in all its awesome radiance.
Hurry there!
Do it now, while you still live in this body.
And experience infinite compassion, eternal bliss and absolute freedom!

Experience

I was carried away by a magic wind to a mysterious land at the end of the Universe.
There I saw a giant tree bearing shining fruits.
I was hungry, so I plucked a fruit and ate it.
It was delicious beyond all description..pure ambrosia!
Now I am back on Earth and trying to describe the experience of tasting this fruit.
Nothing I do or say can give you a taste of that. You have to bite into its golden succulence yourself.
Experience is the only proof, the only knowing.
How can one know that which is beyond intellect, beyond language, beyond sensation or emotion?
How can mind describe the Source from which mind springs?
Can the formless, timeless, nameless ONE be captured in Space or Time?
Listen , my friend, the only way is to jump into the abyss, drown in the ocean, be consumed like a moth in that flame.
Bite deep into the Golden Fruit!
Then you can join me in my dumbness and celebrate as I do.
In total and perfect Silence.

Atma Shatakam of Sri Shankara

The Atma Shatakam or Nirvana Shatakam is a haunting and beautiful bhajan written by Sri Adi Shankaracharya. The essence of Advaita philosophy is in this bhajan.
Chidananda rupam, Shivoham, Shivoham!

I am not mind, nor intellect, nor ego,

nor the reflections of inner self (chitta).

I am not the five senses. I am beyond that.

I am not the ether, nor the earth,

nor the fire, nor the wind (the five elements).

I am  that eternal knowing and bliss, Shiva,

love and pure consciousness.


Neither can I be termed as energy (prana),

nor five types of breath (vayus),

nor the seven material essences,

nor the five coverings (pancha-kosha).

Neither am I the five instruments of elimination,

procreation, motion, grasping, or speaking.

I am that eternal knowing and bliss, Shiva,

love and pure consciousness.


I have no hatred or dislike, nor affiliation or liking,

nor greed, nor delusion, nor pride or haughtiness,

nor feelings of envy or jealousy.

I have no duty (dharma), nor any money,

nor any desire (kama), nor even liberation (moksha).

I am  that eternal knowing and bliss, Shiva,

love and pure consciousness.


I have neither merit (virtue), nor demerit (vice).

I do not commit sins or good deeds,

nor have happiness or sorrow, pain or pleasure.

I do not need mantras, holy places,

scriptures (Vedas), rituals or sacrifices (yagnas).

I am none of the triad of

the observer or the experience of observing

or the object being observed or experienced.

I am  that eternal knowing and bliss, Shiva,

love and pure consciousness.


I do not have fear of death, as I do not have death.

I have no separation from my true self, no doubt about my existence,

nor have I discrimination on the basis of birth.

I have no father or mother,nor did I have a birth.

I am not the relative, nor the friend,

nor the guru, nor the disciple.

I am  that eternal knowing and bliss, Shiva,

love and pure consciousness.


I am all pervasive.

I am without any attributes and without any form.

I have neither attachment to the world, nor to liberation (mukti).

I have no wishes for anything because I am everything,

everywhere,

every time,

always in equilibrium.

I am  that eternal knowing and bliss, Shiva,

love and pure consciousness.

Dark Light

Darkness and Light , like playful lovers, play hide and seek eternally.

So you read all the books - the Upanishads, the Tao Te Ching, the songs of Kabir and the gems of Rumi's brilliance.

 So you can wax eloquent on physics and metaphysics with equal applomb.

So what?

Have you felt what it is to dissolve like a dewdrop in an ocean of Love?

Have you dived deep into the nothingness of the Heart-lotus?

Have you become the silence where all the questions cease?

Have you melted like wax in the heat of surrender?

It just is.

No one knows the inner splendour of the falling rain being born again in endless cycles on the hot breath of the sun.
Which drop are you? Which cloud is your mother? Which river gave birth to you in your last life?
Senseless questions are symptoms of the fever of intellect.
Wordmongers craft their metaphors with an eye on the latest fashion and a hunger for the bazaar.
Wisdom bordellos flourish in the spiritual Las Vegas.
Surely this whoredom of the spirit is far greater a blackness than honest lust!
Crystal chains are strong as diamonds and not easy to break.. clinging to enlightenments and mistaken mastery, the fake prophets beget a horrific karma for their souls.
Headless heroes sink like stones in forgotten oceans, their myths dissolving like statues of salt.
The world turns, the sun shines, the stars light up the night, the wind blows, trees grow and flowers bloom and fall, with no fanfare or fuss. Any honest eye can see.
It just is.

Moments of Stillness.

"Each day we are faced with challenges, and each time we have an opportunity to bring compassion and wisdom to the forefront rather than responding from monkey mind. It is like a true kind of human transmutation to find a deeper and kinder response, to be able to pause and give our heart instead of our habits to another." Daily Zen.

A moment of stillness is a simple magic charm that can transform your life.
 All you have to do is learn how to be still, breathe slow and deep and easy and shift your attention to the background of your mind.
 The background is the empty blue sky. The foreground is a whirlpool of thoughts and emotions, like clouds blown by the storm-winds.
You are upset or angry or sad - pause for a moment.
 Focus on your breath....let it slow down, become lighter.
Shift your attention to the background.
Be the Blue Sky...do not attempt to react to the clouds of thoughts and feelings in any way, just observe them without judgement or reaction or identification, like watching a movie without being sucked in emotionally.
As you learn to be a detached witness of your own inner feelings and thoughts, you will find that miraculous changes will occur, effortlessly.
 Problems may dissolve altogether or mutate into solutions or just become insignificant.
 Patience and strength and courage will automatically flow in from the Universe to re-charge your batteries.
Try it. Practice it. And see how the magic unfolds.
Moments of stillness, consciously and deliberately chosen, will bring about the  metamorphosis of enlightenment that is your true nature and your birth-right.
Once you learn how to be the Blue Sky, you inherit the freedom of infinity and eternity.
Right here and right now.

The Vagabond Swordsman.

Puny human intellects, playing their infantile games of conceptual thought, argue and pontificate , create histories, dogmas, philosophies, sciences : all dust on the wind, foam on the waves.
Who will name the nameless, shape the formless, pin down the timeless?
As well try to devour the sun or swallow the oceans!

Can words describe that which is beyond all description?
 Can intellect measure the infinite nothingness of no-mind?
A vagabond in ragged clothes laughs in the face of the storm.
 He has nothing, does nothing, says nothing - but he is everything.
He dwells in silence...and the razor-edged sword of his poise cuts through 200,000 years of human knowledge like a knife through butter!

Surrender - the joy of letting go.

Creation's greatest paradox: in order to LIVE fully and totally, you must learn how to die before your body dies!
Sweet surrender! The joy of letting it all go...falling like a stone into the unknown, with no fear or hesitation.
What are you clinging to anyway? A bag of garbage - concepts and memories and shapes of light and shadow, ghosts of a non-existent past.
What are you trying to protect and preserve, with such great desperation? A soap-bubble floating briefly on the air.
Lay your neck gladly on the block and let Her sharp sword cut off your head.
Be the drop that falls willingly into the ocean, dissolving its individuality in the vastness.
Leap without hesitation into the abyss, with total trust.
That's all it takes to surrender.
And inherit infinity.
No words can describe the taste of that freedom!

Invitation

Life is an open invitation. The universe has no locked doors, or gates- only vast ,open expanses of freedom.

Everything we see and hear and feel is an invitation to grow into who we really are. 

The open sky, the flowing river, the trees waving their welcome to the wind- all invite us to the bliss of Being.

Fire and water and earth and sky weave their dance of perfect harmony, inviting us to  feel the magic and the joy and the perfect peace of knowing that there is only ONE - and that WE are this ONE.

All barriers and differentiations are illusions that disappear like mist when the inner eye is opened.

How we laugh together as we celebrate our infinity!

 Let the music play and the dance begin, let the wine flow and  hearts sing!

Come! We who were never born and will never die, let us celebrate our infinite and eternal birthday, magically created anew with every breath.

Joined together in perfection, let us blow trumpets of silence that will shatter all the gates of thought and word and memory and set our spirits free!

Come let us celebrate this day of freedom and bless the universe with our joy and laughter.

O dearly beloved ! Come celebrate this special moment with me!

Treedom

Treedom is freedom. What does this mean?
Consider the splendour of the old mahogany tree arrayed in his brand-new spring foliage of jewel-green.For close to a hundred years, he has grown in harmony with the seasons, roots reaching ever deeper into the earth as his branches reach ever higher into the sky. Though he does not travel, he bridges earth and heaven and dances with wind and sun and rain.
In the timeless rhythm of the seasons, he flows in perfect harmony.
He is my guru and an old friend..I have known him all the years of my life.
I feel the power and the deep wisdom he emanates, the compassion in his heart, providing cool shade to weary humans and a refuge to generations of birds and squirrels and insects and lizards.
He teaches me how to stay still, alert and aware, to plumb my inner depths and heights, grow deep and tall in the vertical dimension of the present moment.
From trees I learnt that , for spiritual growth, this is the first step....balancing the heights and the depths, carrying the light of heaven into the dark  of earth and balancing the airy dance of expanding consciousness with  the deep-rooted strength of anchored centering.
Once  depth and height meet, awareness spreads in all directions like a blazing sun!

Everyday is my birthday.

Everyday is my birthday.
Every moment I am born anew.
Once I dissolve into my center,
Every breath is a song of praise,
Every heartbeat a reminder
That the perfect gem of Tao,
Shining like an eternal sun
In the midst of all creatures and conditions,
Is my true home.
Right Here. Right Now.
Forever.

Everyday Magic

Warm sun on your face,
Never ending blue sky,
Wind dancing with treetops a-shiver with leaves,
flaming red flowers that gladden the eye.
A song in your heart-
you breathe anyhow,
blood pulsing in joy with this perfect moment,
Infinity , eternity, right here and right now.
Everyday magic
Is easy to find;
Like a bird on the wing you glide and you soar
Through the thoughtless expanse of infinite mind.
Let go of it all!
Stop and just be.
Child laughing in wonder at dragonfly glory -
Innocence re-discovered, feels so good to be free!

The mystery of man.

What a mystery! Immortal perfection, dwelling in an ocean of love and joy and light, is miserable and lonely and frightened!
It's just a matter of mistaken identity- you forgot who you really are!
All this learning and knowledge and endless verbalisation are cluttering up your head.
Stop this restless, incessant thinking! Get rid of this unnecessary disease.Throw away all the garbage you have been carrying all these years.
Drop your burdens and rest in the garden of silence.

Once the scales of conceptual thought drop from the eyes, magic is revealed.
In the slanting sunlight, the scarlet flowers on the tree look like rare rubies.
The sound of angels singing is the sound of the breath dancing inside you.
Welcome to the Heart where all suffering disappears.
Let go! Surrender to that deep, ineffable peace.