God Dwells Within

 “When the sun of Self shines bright and real in the vast Heart-expanse, darkness dies, all afflictions end and infinite bliss wells up.” Ramana Maharishi

When I was 21, my guru told me, “ God dwells within you as you!”

After 47 years, I begin to understand the profound significance of this truth.

God is my very being.

How strange! We search for God everywhere when He is closer to us than our own breath.

Grace is the key.

Surrender totally and Grace will flow over you like a mother’s embrace.

Grace takes care of everything.

Kabir said, “ I laugh when I hear that the fish in the water is thirsty.”

How miraculous! God, the infinite, eternal, omnipotent ocean of love and joy and peace is right here in me! In you, in them, in everyone and everything. 

Everywhere I look, I see God, wherever I go, I walk in God, everything I touch is God. Nothing but God exists!

So what is there to do but be?

Just be – and praise God, give thanks to God, sing His name in joy.

In this very life, know the kingdom of Heaven : right here, right now.

Abide in the Self that is the core of your being.

All will be well.

Paul Brunton writes: “I remain perfectly calm and fully aware of who I am and what is occurring. The Self still exists but it is a changed radiant Self. Something that is far superior to my unimportant personality rises into consciousness and becomes me. I am in the midst of an ocean of blazing light. I sit in the lap of holy bliss. Divine grace descends and acts only when it is invoked by total surrender. It acts from within because God resides in the heart of all beings. Its whispers can be heard only in a mind purified by self surrender and prayer. Rationalists laugh at it and atheists scorn it but it exists. It is a descent of God into the soul‟s zone of awareness. It is visitation of a force unexpected and unpredictable. It is voice spoken out of cosmic silence. It is cosmic will which can perform authentic miracles under its own law.”

“To learn the Buddhist Way is to learn about oneself. To learn about oneself is to forget oneself. To forget oneself is to perceive oneself as all things. To realize this is to cast off the body and mind of self and others. When you have reached this stage you will be detached even from enlightenment but will practice it continually without thinking about it.”    Zen Master Dogen