The Dance of Tao

 

“The greatest Virtue is to follow Tao and Tao alone.
The Tao is elusive and intangible.
Oh, it is intangible and elusive, and yet within is image.
Oh, it is elusive and intangible, and yet within is form.
Oh, it is dim and dark, and yet within is essence.
This essence is very real, and therein lies faith.
From the very beginning until now, its name has never been forgotten.
Thus I perceive the creation.
How do I know the ways of creation?
Because of this.”             Lao Tsu, Tao Te Ching

How did this magical creation come to be ?

Who  wove the intricate tapestry of beauty and perfection  that is Nature?

Who made sky and sun, clouds and fire, earth and sea?

Who made the birds and the beasts and the fishes, the snail and the snake, the bee and the butterfly, the river, the mountain, the tree?

Who breathes in my chest and hums as the life-force in the deepest core of me?

There is a pattern at the very  heart of things, a secret code, an underlying rhythm that creates the song of existence.

This invisible, formless current is the field that is the source and the substance of all things.

Every atom and every cell obeys its inexorable and immaculate power.

It is as if all the heavenly bodies are instruments playing in a vast orchestra,  Gods and angels sing along in  an ecstatic choir and the whole universe resonates  in empathetic harmony.

Learn to feel this divine music, to vibrate with its keynote and be in tune with its  subtle melody.

Then, and only then, will your life be the dance that it was always meant to be.

“Empty yourself of everything.
Let the mind become still.
The ten thousand things rise and fall while the Self watches their return.
They grow and flourish and then return to the source.
Returning to the source is stillness, which is the way of nature.
The way of nature is unchanging.
Knowing constancy is insight.
Not knowing constancy leads to disaster.
Being at one with the Tao is eternal.
And though the body dies, the Tao will never pass away.” Lao Tsu, Tao Te Ching

The One

 

"When a man knows God, he is free: his sorrows have an end, and birth and death are no more. When in inner union he is beyond the world of the body, then the third world, the world of the Spirit, is found, where the power of the All shines, and man has all—for he is one with the One. " KrishnaYajur Veda, Shvetasvatara Upanishad 

Who can describe the One?

There are waves, great and small, there are whirlpools and currents, but they are all just a part of one ocean.

There are different trees and shrubs,there are creepers and mosses and fungii, but they are all just a part of one forest.

There are bacteria and microbes, insects and reptiles, birds and animals and humans, but they are all just a part of one life-force.

The One alone exists.

When the mind is still and silent, anchored firmly in its source, then the quantum eye opens and sees the swirling energy of potential and probability that forms all reality.

When the intellect, speech and senses are struck dumb, baffled by the unknowable, then the inner eye opens and sees the unseeable.

When the heart blossoms in devout surrender, then the infinite eye opens and sees only the divine everywhere.

All the religions and holy books are like dead leaves blown before the wind -their essence is but one.

This One is pure existence-consciousness-bliss.

This One is the substratum of infinite love that contains all that exists.

This One has been called Brahman and Tao and Buddha-nature and God…..but it is beyond all names and forms.

You cannot know this One, you can only be it.

There is only One.

“ Abide in perfect stillness, with no movement of tongue or mind or body. Behold the effulgence of the Self within – the complete absence of fear, the vast ocean of bliss. Ha, so simple is Atma Vidya!” Bhagawan Ramana Maharishi, Atma Vidya Keertanam.

Abiding Peace

 

"My Guru told me — ‘Trust me. I tell you; you are Divine. Take it as the absolute truth. Your joy is divine, your suffering is divine too. All comes from God. Remember it always. You are God, your will alone is done.” I did believe him and soon realized how wonderfully true and accurate were his words. I simply followed his instruction, which was to focus the mind on pure being, ‘I am’, and stay in it. I used to sit for hours together, with nothing but the ‘I am’ in my mind and soon the peace and joy and deep all-embracing love became my normal state. In it all disappeared — myself, my guru, the life I lived, the world around me. Only peace remained, and unfathomable silence.” Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj,

Incessant, unnecessary thought is the root cause of the insanity of the human race.

Living in this world, when the suffering seems unending, do not despair.

Understand that you are a victim of the tyranny of the mind.

Simplify your life as much as you can.

Become an authentic human being, grounded in your true nature.

Learn the art of stopping the mind-stream, of just being in the present in clear, awake awareness.

Explore the wonder of direct experience without the filter of conceptual thought.

At first, you will get but a brief glimpse of the truth.

This is enough – once you have tasted this, nothing else will ever satisfy you.

Have faith in the Guru, trust the teaching, let your love for  the Divine deepen and grow.

Patiently continue your practice -sravana, manana, niddhidhyasana – listening to the truth, reflecting deeply on the truth, resting in the truth……again and again and again.

Your thought-free states will grow longer and longer, you will enjoy the bliss of samadhi for extended periods of time.

You will yearn for the day when you can stay permanently in that knowing.

At last there will come a time when the still mind sinks deep in the Heart and the attention stays focused unwaveringly upon the Self shining within.

Now the world disappears, all sorrow ends: one rests blissfully in a deep, abiding peace.

The exploration of the nature of ‘I’, of the ‘I AM’, leads to the unveiling of the presence of God in ourself. This has been stated in many a spiritual tradition the world over. According to Meister Eckhart, “I AM can be spoken by no creature, but by God alone. I must become God and God must become me, so completely that we share the same ‘I’ eternally. Our truest ‘I’ is God.”

In Praise of Arunachala

 

“Arunachala, the magnetic mountain, never stirring from His motionless state, with no  resolve whatsoever on His part, merely by the power of His presence, bestows perfect Grace that erases all the nescience of His devotees, like the sun bestows life. Truly, He is the Lord of strange, wondrous and exceeding might, indescribable and beyond compare.” From Arunachala Akshara Mana Malai of Bhagavan Ramana Maharishi, commentary by Murugunar.

O sacred hill of jnana, who can fathom your mystery?
You are the all-powerful magnet that draws true devotees from near and far.
You are Lord Shiva in mountain form, a mystic fire that burns all egos to ash.
You are that perfect stillness that is the source and the substance of creation.
You are the boundless space that contains all that exists.
You are the inner spark that is the life-force in every living being.
You are the embrace that transforms your worshippers in ultimate union..
You are the radiant perfection that shines eternally as the Heart, the Self.
You are the destroyer of vasanas, the bestower of detachment and discrimination.
You are the ocean of compassionate grace, the blessing that sets the spirit free.
O divine mountain, swallow me whole and let me dissolve in thee!

“Ocean of nectar, full  of grace, engulfing the universe in Thy splendour!
Oh Arunachala, the Supreme itself! Be Thou the sun and open the lotus of my Heart in Bliss!”
Bhagavan Ramana Maharishi, Five Stanzas to Sri Arunachala.