Tend the Ox

It is said that, in the old days, Kuei Shan asked Lazy An, " What work do you do during all the twenty four hours of the day?"
Lazy An said, "I tend the ox."
Kuei Shan asked " How do you tend it?"
Lazy An answered, "Whenever it gets into the rice-grass, I pull it back by the nose."
Kuei Shan said, "You are really tending the Ox!"

Tend your ox. Half-measures are pointless.
Turn within..all the time.

The Heart

“In the center of the Heart Cave, Brahman shines alone as “I “ , “ I” , the Self.

Enter the Heart through Self-inquiry, or by sinking and merging in the Heart or by breath control and become rooted as That.”

Ramanna Gita Chapter 2.

Let the mind dissolve in the Self in the Heart.

Stillness of mind, stillness of breath,

sinking into the Heart, merging in the Heart- all happen together.

Being rooted in the Self

Nothing more is needed.

All else is automatically taken care of.

Practice continues until the rooting becomes effortless and permanent, one’s natural state.

 “ Firmly established in the Self, undisturbed by the least ripple of thought, as still as an idol of stone or wood, dissolved completely in Brahman-Self, even as water is in milk, with awareness devoid of all impurities of thought and  drowsiness, standing clear as the pure sky, the grandeur of the Jnani’s nishta ( the Enlightened One’s firm stance in the Self) defies all thoughts and expression.”

Ribhu Gita, Chapter 19, verse 21

BE HERE NOW

I wake. I sleep. I dream. I experience deep, dreamless sleep. I wake again.

I live each day as it comes.

I am not a cog in a machine. I am not a statistic. I am not an ID card.

I am a unique individual with my own feelings, needs, style and purpose.

I dream my own dreams, sing my own song.

I am what I am. I exist, I belong.

In my mind, there is a story, woven of thoughts and feelings, memories and fantasies, wishes,hopes and fears. A story of ancestors and descendants, caste and nationality, family and society.

A story of the past..and of how it will be in the future.

This is not real…just a story.

The main character in this story is an imaginary person- I forget my true being and identify with this unreal character, this ego.

“This is My movie- and I am the STAR…no matter the circumstances of my life, I am the Main Character- it’s all about ME!”

Thus begins my descent into hell, into unconsciousness and projection and duality and fantasy.

The past is dead and gone. The future is still unborn. There is only Now.

This moment. The most precious gift, the only treasure, the pearl beyond all price.

“Why does everyone like the Tao so much? Perhaps it is because we find all that we seek and are forgiven our sins? Perhaps it is because we find the  infinite peace and wonder and joy that underlies all creation?”

To find this treasure, the imaginary ego must be erased…revealing the true Self that is always at the core of my being.

I must return to the simple, the essential , the eternal core.

And just BE HERE NOW.

I am

I am a human being, a child of nature, a citizen of planet earth.
 I am laughter and joy, alert awareness centered in Being.
 I am consciousness becoming aware of itself, the formless taking form, the eye that God has become to look upon Herself and wonder!
 I am Divine spark in human body, intimately connected to stars and galaxies, earth and water and fire and air, birds and beasts, insects and bacteria, plants and trees – an integral part of the magical web of life .
 I am the part – and yet, I am always, also, the whole.
 I am the microcosm that contains the macrocosm.
 Within this body of blood and flesh and bones, of nerves and muscle and sinews, I am a symphony of intelligent Love playing this human role.
 I am matter and energy both, dancing one into the other.
 I am Life expressing itself through emptiness and form, light and darkness, sound and silence.
 I am nothing flowering into everything in self-awareness.
 When I discover who I truly am, I AM THAT I AM!