Celebrating Light

 
“ What a mystery is Light!
Awareness in form, burning fog and mist and darkness away,turning all it touches into radiance.
See the Light within.
Let it shine into all the dark, hidden corners of your being.
This is enough.
Observation, without judgement, is transformation.”
Lightsongs -the book.

When darkness gathers, do not despair.

All that is needed to dispel it is the mere presence of Light.

Light is sun and moon and stars, fire and lightning, spark and flame.

Both particle and wave, it is the quantum expression of  eternal, absolute truth.

Light is indestructible, perfect, whole; it is the intelligent, living consciousness that is the substratum of all that exists.

Light pervades every atom and cell, forming the very fabric of creation.

Light is the fire of faith in the heart proclaiming the joy of devotion.

Light is Brahman , the infinite Self, the One, the Tao.

Light is unconditional love and compassion, radiant grace aflame at the innermost core of being.

In every living eye, this sacred Light shines through.

Be sure! There is nothing that this glorious Light cannot do.

“Singularly illuminating is the bright awareness,
Full of wonder is the pure illumination.
The moon’s appearance, a river of stars,
Snow-clad pines, clouds hovering on mountain peaks.
In darkness, they glow with brightness.
In shadows, they shine with a splendid light.”
Hongzhi Zhengjue, Zen Master, 11th Century

 

A Prayer for COP26

 (World leaders are meeting at Glasgow to try and save the planet.)

It is indeed the mind that is the cause of men’s bondage and liberation. the mind that is attached to sense-objects leads to bondage, while dissociated from sense-objects it tends to lead to liberation.”Amrita-bindu Upanishad

There is a race of beings who have God in their blood, their cells, their bones.

Divinity shines in every strand of their DNA.

Their home is a wondrous planet filled with beauty and life.

Immortal, infinite peace is theirs by birthright and ecstatic bliss is their natural state of being.

How fortunate, how blessed they should be!

Alas -this entire race has been driven insane by a sinister illusion, so they have forgotten who they really are. This has resulted in limitless selfishness and greed becoming the core of their world-view.

Brainwashed by this unreal, yet deadly, virus, filled with fear and insecurity and rage, they are destroying themselves and their home planet, creating self-inflicted suffering like dreamers trapped in a never-ending nightmare.

If only some miracle could jolt them awake!

What is required is an evolutionary quantum leap that results in a transformation of racial consciousness.

In the long history of this race, several individual beings across time and geography and cultures have achieved such transformation. This proves it is possible..

These beings, the mystics and sages and messiahs, have preached this possibility and exhorted their fellow beings to awaken too.

If enough individuals could achieve this, a critical mass would be created that could trigger a rapid, species-wide wave of transformation.

May every individual awaken!

May the intelligent power that pervades all creation make this happen!

May the blessings of the great enlightened beings shower down upon this race!

Om shanti, shanti, shanti .

“The Self that is subtler than the subtle and greater than the great is seated in the heart of every creature. One who is free from desire sees the glory of the self through the tranquility of the mind and senses and becomes absolved from grief”. – Katha Upanishad

 

The Unborn

 

“Heaven and Earth last forever.
Why do Heaven and Earth last forever?
They are unborn,
So ever living.
The sage stays behind, thus he is ahead.
He is detached, thus at one with all.
Through selfless action, he attains fulfillment.” Lao Tsu, Tao Te Ching

The world is born from being.

Being is born from non-being.

All that is born will change.

All that is born will die.

The unborn is the eternal mother of all things.

Beyond being and non-being, beyond space and time, beyond body and mind,

Only the real exists.

The real is infinite, unchanging, unattached, perfect and whole.

Like a mirage rising from hot desert sands, the unreal rises and falls – again and  again.

“Is it not because one forgets one’s truth, the light of consciousness, that one gets caught in the net of  Maya, from which one does not know how to escape? The power of Maya is that it causes the jiva to do over and over again that which it already has done.”  Sri Ramana Maharishi, Padamalai.

If you identify with that which is born, you choose suffering and death.

If you identify with the source, the unborn, you choose immortality and blissful peace.

The first choice leads you into the maze of  delusion over and over again.

The second choice takes you home to your true perfect Self.

The sage, in his infinite compassion, says to us: before this body dies, choose wisely!

Return to the source and discover heaven on earth.

“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.”
Krishna Yajur Veda, Shvetasvatara Upanishad

Harmony

 “We are even closer to God than the fishes are to the ocean in which they live. The innermost being of man is the real being of God; man is always linked with God. If he could only realize it, it is by finding harmony in his own soul that he finds communion with God. All meditation and contemplation are taught with this purpose: to harmonize one's innermost being with God, so that He is seeing, hearing, thinking through us, and our being is a ray of His light.” Hazrat Inayat Khan

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

Pause a moment – feel the flowing current of  God in which you live.

Deep in your chest, a flame shines like a thousand suns.

The triumphant music pouring from that flame is your wake-up call: listen!

Without instrument or voice, heaven and earth join in that hymn of glory.

Tree and wind and mountain and sea join the chorus of stars and sky.

Listen with the ears of your heart and you cannot but hear that music.

With all your being, just sing that divine song!

O child of immortal bliss, stand tall and claim your heritage.

If you would know Grace, understand that everything is pervaded by the One .

Fill your days with beauty and joy, live fearlessly and totally in that harmony.

Thus will you be a light unto yourself and unto all creation.

“Thou art my all in all, O Lord!-the life of my life, the essence of essence;

In the three worlds I have none else but Thee to call my own.

Thou art my peace, my joy, my hope; Thou my support, my wealth, my glory;

Thou my wisdom and my strength.

Thou art my home, my place of rest; my dearest friend, my next of kin;

My present and my future, Thou; my heaven and my salvation.

Thou art my scriptures, my commandments; Thou art my ever gracious Guru;

Thou the Spring of my boundless bliss.

Thou art the Way, and Thou the Goal; Thou the adorable One, O Lord!

Thou art the Mother, tender-hearted; Thou the chastising Father;

Thou the Creator and Protector; Thou the Helmsman who dost steer

My craft across the sea of life.” 

A favorite hymn of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa.

 

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