The Dance Goes On

 

“In the pursuit of learning, every day something is acquired.
In the pursuit of Tao, every day something is dropped.
Less and less is done
Until non-action is achieved.
When nothing is done, nothing is left undone.
The world is ruled by letting things take their course.
It cannot be ruled by interfering.”      Lao Tsu, Tao Te Ching.

Listen, my friend – do you want to know true happiness?

Your learning, your cleverness, your pride- throw it all away!

Stop thinking, planning, doing, achieving.

Drop everything.

Be still. Be silent. 

Dive deep into yourself.

Reach that state of blissful peace that is the Tao in you.

What a mystery! A tiny lotus-bud at your center contains all the galaxies!

Hold fast to this center -then, miracles happen.

Now every day is auspicious and wonderful.

Everything unfolds just as it should in perfect harmony.

The web of nature is a living masterpiece:

All that you see is  beautiful and sacred.

Joy overflows- you are so glad to be alive!

Give thanks and embrace the Tao.

Live simply and naturally in each moment.

Whatever needs to happen, happens.

What will be, will be.

With effortless grace, the  dance goes on.

“Do not wander outside, eating the scorching sand of worldly pleasures, which are non-Self; come home to the Heart where peace is shining as a vast, everlasting, cool shade, and enjoy  the bliss of Self. Having annihilated the delusive mind which always dwells upon worldly things, having killed the restless ego, and having completely erased the worldly vasanas, shine as Shiva, the pure Consciousness itself.”Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharishi, Guru Vachaka Kovai

Soul Spring

 “Arise! Awake! Approach the wise and learn. Like the sharp edge of a razor is that path, so the wise say—hard to tread and difficult to cross.” – Katha Upanishad

Sometimes, a soul must face its worst fears in a terrifying dark night that seems like it will never end. Steeped in sorrow and regret, this seemingly unbearable torment can drive a human being to the very edge of madness or death.

In this impenetrable gloom, it is hard to still step forward bravely, with faith that the Light will somehow emerge.Fortunately, even the longest night must end with the rising of a new dawn.

"There is in all things an inexhaustible sweetness and purity, a silence that is a fount of action and joy.  It rises up in wordless gentleness and flows out to me from the unseen roots of all created being, welcoming me tenderly, saluting me with indescribable humility."  Thomas Merton

There is a spring that comes to the soul, a warm green flowering after the long, bleak cold of winter, an ecstatic explosion of sunshine and colour and joy.

Now the breeze feels like liquid happiness flowing warm upon the world and the fragrance of sat-chit-ananda is wafted gently upon the air. 

Here the voice of God speaks in the wind and the thunder, in rustling leaves and birdsong, in the murmur of the river and the ocean’s long sigh upon the shore.

Like an arrow released from a bow, the soul flies into freedom, into endless skies of unconditional, blissful love.

Like a mighty eagle soaring on the mountain wind, the soul celebrates its  awakening, its resurrection and renewal in the eternal now.

This alert awareness is original consciousness.

This freedom is perfect, infinite and unchanging .

This wholeness is absolute fulfilment and deep unshakable peace.

How good it feels to come home!

“Only when Self, the truth of love, is known, will the knot of all the problems in life be severed. Only when the pinnacle of love, supreme love or para-bhakti, is attained can even liberation be said to be attained. Love is verily the heart of all religions.” Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharishi

I Just Sit

 

“The heavy is the root of the light.
The still is the master of unrest.
Therefore the sage, traveling all day,
Does not lose sight of his baggage.
Though there are beautiful things to be seen,
He remains unattached and calm.
Why should the lord of ten thousand chariots act lightly in public?
To be light is to lose one's root.
To be restless is to lose one's control.” Lao Tsu, Tao Te Ching.

I just sit.

Like ever-devoted Nandi at the feet of Lord Siva, I sit in single-minded surrender.

Like Siddhartha beneath the bodhi tree, with unshakable purpose, I sit.

Like an idol carved from monolithic stone, unmoved by sun or wind or rain,

I sit untouched by fear or need, attachment or greed, doubt or desire.

By the Guru’s grace, beyond time and space,

beyond waking and sleeping, beyond living and dying,

firm as a mountain, I sit on the lion-throne of Self in the blossoming lotus of the Heart.

Just sitting, here have I found perfect rest: in stillness, in silence, in bliss.

There is nothing to do, there is nowhere to go, the poise of jnana is just this!

Upon the rising of this sun, the mind dissolves like mist. 

Simply being is my true nature – nothing else can exist.

So,  quietly,  I just sit.

“Higher than quietude there is no achievement; higher than quietude there is no effort; higher than quietude there is no tapas; higher than quietude there is no deathless life.” Sri Ramana Maharishi

Familiar Stranger

 

O stranger with the far away gaze, greetings! ….have we met before?
Your reflection is familiar and I think I  know the contours of your smile.
Perhaps we met in another dimension, in a parallel universe or a dream?
Distant bells ring, ethereal voices sing as I begin to recognise the loving light in your eyes.
Perhaps, in another lifetime, we shared some simple joys -were we ever friends or lovers or family, did I know you as a little child?

Sometimes memory haunts me, a sound, a touch, a smell: do you feel it too?
Like a chord once played or a long-drawn note hanging tremulous upon the air;
Like the faint murmur of a beloved voice that is no longer there.
I cannot measure you with my mind, I do not know your name, 
and yet I feel a tremor in my heartbeat, a mysterious gladness in my soul.
Something at the bleeding edge of thought keeps reminding me of you,
Like a tantalising flash of déjà vu that almost reveals, but will not give up its secret.
Who are you? Do you know me? Together, are we whole?

Have we been travelling forever down the stream of time playing this recognition game?
Someday maybe I will remember everything, all our connections and shared moments,
the intricate steps and rythms of the dance that we designed.
Sometime, will you finally let me see?
Will you deign, at last, to reveal your secret?
How cleverly you play at being both you and me
in a blissful pirouette through  eternity!

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

Sri Ramana Maharishi, Guru Vachaka Kovai

Sixty Six

 

“Do you think you can take over the universe and improve it?
I do not believe it can be done.
The universe is sacred.
You cannot improve it.
If you try to change it, you will ruin it.
If you try to hold it, you will lose it.
So sometimes things are ahead and sometimes they are behind;
Sometimes breathing is hard, sometimes it comes easily;
Sometimes there is strength and sometimes weakness;
Sometimes one is up and sometimes down.
Therefore the sage avoids extremes, excesses, and complacency.”
 Lao Tsu, Tao Te Ching

I am truly blessed and fortunate.

I have lived on this earth for three score and six years.

All my life, a benevolent power has guided and supported me, protected and comforted me.

A kind universe has always come to my aid in my hour of need.

Many wonderful beings have blessed me with their affection and their wisdom,

their kindness and laughter and love.

Great good fortune has been showered upon me.

Above all, by the compassionate grace of the Guru, I have found a deep and lasting peace.

My heart overflows with  joyous gratitude.

All around me, all is sacred, all is well.

“Heart, the Source, is the beginning, the middle, and the end of all. Heart, the supreme space, is never a  form, it is the light of Truth. The death of the mind drowned in the ocean of Self-Consciousness 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

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.