Hold Fast To The Center

The kingdom of heaven lies within you.

It is formless, soundless, intangible, but it is real.

It is the greatest treasure in the universe.

It is your birth-right, your true nature.

If you would see the invisible, 

hear the silent,

know the unknowable,

Be still.

Dive into yourself, deep down, into the very heart of being.

A mystical flower blossoms in these depths, revealing the Light divine.

This is the center,

the Tao, Brahman, God,

the eternal, immortal power that is the source and the substance of all things.

This is the place of blissful, loving, peace.

Hold fast to this center.

All that needs to happen will happen.

There is nothing more to be done.

“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.

Knowing constancy, the mind is open.

With an open mind, you will be openhearted.

Being openhearted, you will act royally.

Being royal, you will attain the divine.

Being divine, you will be at one with the Tao.

Being at one with the Tao is eternal.

And though the body dies, the Tao will never pass away.” Lao Tsu, Tao Te Ching.

Wave or Ocean?

 

“The nature of the wave is to move. The nature of the ocean is to remain motionless. If the wandering wave loves the  nature of the ocean, namely, to remain still, it will lose its wave-form, subside, drown into the ocean and thereby become the ocean itself. Likewise, if the jiva, the wandering mind, loves Siva, the Self, he will be still, lose his jiva-nature of moving and standing as a separate entity, dissolve in Siva and become Siva Himself.” Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharishi

Are you the wave or are you the ocean?

Which would you rather be? 

Waste no energy on past and future –

live fully in the present.

Like a straw on the wind, like a leaf on the rushing river,

Let go and go gladly with the flow.

This is the key to mastery.

Drop the illusion of being a separate individual-

You are but a grain of sand on the vast beach of life.

Give up the fantasy of being in control -

In truth, you are as helpless as a new-born babe.

Stop  trying to  manipulate others or your environment-

Accept what is.

A compassionate divine intelligence takes care of the whole universe-

Trust that it is taking care of you as well.

Faith and humble surrender bring gifts beyond all price.

Return to the source of being through stillness:

Discover that your true nature is infinite, blissful peace.

“As rivers, flowing down, merge with the sea by giving up their names and forms, so also the illumined soul,  freed from name and form, merges with the self-effulgent supreme Self.” Mundaka Upanishad.

Rejoice

 

“Heart, the Source, is the beginning, the middle, and the end of all. It is the supreme space,  the formless light of Truth.The death of the mind drowned in the ocean of Self is the eternal silence. The real ‘I’ is the supreme Heart-space which is the great ocean of bliss.”                            Sri Ramana Maharishi, Guru Vachaka Kovai

When the body dies, you will not  die.

You are not that which comes and goes – you are the infinite perfection that underlies everything.

Your original state, the formless absolute, is the source of all creation.

Stillness returns one to this source – this has been the true way since the dawn of time.

If you would be immortal, take your stance in that original state.

Beyond beginnings and ends, the truth begins forever.

What changes is not real; what is real can never change.

The absolute truth is that nothing that happens can affect your real being.

The real is always you, so you need not wait to be what you always are.

You cannot know it – you  can only be it.

Silence is the ocean from which all things arise and into which all things must dissolve.

The mind and this world are but foam on the surface of this ocean .

Dive deep! Return to the formless whole.

Sat -chit-ananda is the eternal principle that always prevails .

Throw away everything else- die before your body dies.

When the illusion of individuality disappears, all desire – and all suffering- ends.

This is the true kingdom of heaven.

Your true and original state is Parabrahman, the divine, an immortal, eternal fountain of joyful, loving peace.

Be that – and rejoice!

“You are perfect. Abandon the idea of imperfection. There is nothing to be destroyed. Ego is not a real thing. Just as it is not necessary to kill the rope which one imagines to be a snake, there is no need to destroy the mind. Knowing the form of the mind benumbs the mind and makes it disappear. One cannot destroy what is eternally destroyed. Stability in the Self is the real posture. Be steady in that real posture.” Ramana Maharishi’s advice to Swami Madhavatirtha