An Advaita forum focusing on Realisation, enlightenment, non-duality, Real Love, peace, freedom, Your original nature, abiding naturally, the Oneness, the Nothingness, and Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj.
As for Maharaj, you will find here some of his early pointers for beginners but some of his later pointers that are for seekers father along the "path." During his last years, he said of I AM THAT: "That book and whatever was expounded at that time was only relevant for that period. I am speaking differently today" and am "emphasizing different aspects." What he offered later differed considerably from his earlier talks, making clear that the pointers in I AM THAT will take you to the midpoint of "the race" but that his final talks point the way to "the finish line."
F.: The printer called with a revised delivery date of next Thursday for this four-book paperback anthology:
You may pre-order now and the book will ship within 48 hours of receipt from the printer. (You may click the picture for more details.) In anticipation of this multi-book anthology's release, certain excerpts from the four books in the paperback collection are being offered.
The following is from the third book which is included in the anthology, FROM THE ABSOLUTE TO THE NOTHINGNESS. The reader is invited to take into contemplation and consideration the following pointers from that book:
Egotism drives persons to want to “be something” and to “be somebody.” Programming and conditioning and enculturation and domestication convince the non-Realized that they “are something” … that they are, in fact, “many things.” (Hence, “duality,” “plurality,” or “multiplicity.”) Desires drive persons to seek states of rapture; fear - combined with a desire for power and control and continuity - drives persons to seek “the divine.”
Ego always wants more; freedom from the bondage of ego results in giving value to less. Ego is about going and doing and zooming in order to collect more; freedom from the love of more allows the non-doingness (the beingness only) to manifest.
Thus, persons search for “the divine” and for an understanding of all that is “supernatural” when in fact there is nothing that is supernatural at all. That which is thought to be supernatural is contained entirely within the blocked and misperceiving consciousness.
[Just as you are not in the world but the world is in you, so it is that all things thought to be supernatural are also merely in you ... in your "mind." Once things imagined by adults are passed on to youth, imagined things will be deemed real in the "minds" of the young. See "Santa Claus," "God," an upgrading of "this world" to another world called "heaven"; a downgrading of "this world" to another world called "hell," ad infinitum.]
Though the only style of living that makes sense in the relative is natural living, the fact is that persons either live unnaturally or think that they are living supernaturally as a result of their having been fooled.
The result of their having been fooled is an endless stream of desires and fears that create a constant sense of longing. A constant sense of longing generates a sense of emptiness … of not being full … of a lack of fulfillment. The desires and fears generate the adoption of one false self after another, so the non-Realized end up being “full of themselves”—meaning, mentally full of their false selves.
Since those selves are illusions without substance, the sensation of longing-and-wishing-inspired emptiness among persons is ever-present throughout the manifestation. The non-Realized never come to the understanding that it is only being content with the emptiness that can be fulfilling during the manifestation.
On one occasion, after securing the lines on my boat and then leaving the harbor, this exchange was overheard as one man asked another: “What have you got lined up for the weekend?” The second answered, “Nothing. Not a GD thing. Isn’t that great?”
If an empty schedule for two days can be considered “great,” imagine how wonderful enjoying the contentment of such emptiness could be 24-7 for the remainder of the manifestation.
Yet who that has been programmed to accumulate more could possibility prefer de-accumulation and less? The answer is, “Only those that have tasted even the slightest bit of the sweetness of less-ness … of nothingness.”
The Realized can taste what the Italians call il dolce di fare niente—“the sweetness of doing nothing.” The Fully Realized will shift to a level even beyond that and will understand something even simpler than “the sweetness of doing nothing,” namely, il dolce di Niente—“the sweetness of Nothing,” period.
It has been asked, “If nothingness is the real deal, then why are words gathered into books or posted on a site? Someone is doing that gathering and posting.” That comment indicates delusion. Consciousness speaks, but consciousness is without personal attributes or individuality or doership. Here, there is no person or being or consciousness choosing anything. All happens spontaneously. Words come automatically, without thought ... without a thinker.
Consciousness has neither body nor mind nor personality. It assumes no identity if pure or if re-purified. No matter how dedicated a person is to finding an identity and “being somebody” and thereby “being fulfilled,” the fact is that whatever a person might claim her or his permanent identity to be, it cannot be any part of a non-permanent relative existence. You really are not anybody.
Thus, whatever persons would claim as their real identity must be void of all notions about self-existence and void of all notions about SELF-existence. Whatever they might think they are is actually beyond beingness and non-beingness and attributes. The self is a conceptualized mirage and the SELF is a conceptualized mirage.
Both "self" and "Self" are just man-made words, and not a single, spoken or written word conveys truth. Words can merely point toward the truth. The self is limited to the relative space, and any temporary, assumed selfness is just so much space. Post-manifestation, there is limitless, infinite space.
Maharaj explained the misunderstanding (and then the understanding) this way: “Now, consciousness has identified with a form. Later, it understands that it is not the form and goes further. In a few cases it may reach the space ….”
The invitation here for the six years from May of 2005 through May of 2011 could be summarized thusly:
1. Reach the space, and then
2. Enjoy il dolce di Niente.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
The following is from the third book which is included in the anthology, FROM THE ABSOLUTE TO THE NOTHINGNESS. The reader is invited to take into contemplation and consideration the following pointers from that book:
Egotism drives persons to want to “be something” and to “be somebody.” Programming and conditioning and enculturation and domestication convince the non-Realized that they “are something” … that they are, in fact, “many things.” (Hence, “duality,” “plurality,” or “multiplicity.”) Desires drive persons to seek states of rapture; fear - combined with a desire for power and control and continuity - drives persons to seek “the divine.”
Ego always wants more; freedom from the bondage of ego results in giving value to less. Ego is about going and doing and zooming in order to collect more; freedom from the love of more allows the non-doingness (the beingness only) to manifest.
Thus, persons search for “the divine” and for an understanding of all that is “supernatural” when in fact there is nothing that is supernatural at all. That which is thought to be supernatural is contained entirely within the blocked and misperceiving consciousness.
[Just as you are not in the world but the world is in you, so it is that all things thought to be supernatural are also merely in you ... in your "mind." Once things imagined by adults are passed on to youth, imagined things will be deemed real in the "minds" of the young. See "Santa Claus," "God," an upgrading of "this world" to another world called "heaven"; a downgrading of "this world" to another world called "hell," ad infinitum.]
Though the only style of living that makes sense in the relative is natural living, the fact is that persons either live unnaturally or think that they are living supernaturally as a result of their having been fooled.
The result of their having been fooled is an endless stream of desires and fears that create a constant sense of longing. A constant sense of longing generates a sense of emptiness … of not being full … of a lack of fulfillment. The desires and fears generate the adoption of one false self after another, so the non-Realized end up being “full of themselves”—meaning, mentally full of their false selves.
Since those selves are illusions without substance, the sensation of longing-and-wishing-inspired emptiness among persons is ever-present throughout the manifestation. The non-Realized never come to the understanding that it is only being content with the emptiness that can be fulfilling during the manifestation.
On one occasion, after securing the lines on my boat and then leaving the harbor, this exchange was overheard as one man asked another: “What have you got lined up for the weekend?” The second answered, “Nothing. Not a GD thing. Isn’t that great?”
If an empty schedule for two days can be considered “great,” imagine how wonderful enjoying the contentment of such emptiness could be 24-7 for the remainder of the manifestation.
Yet who that has been programmed to accumulate more could possibility prefer de-accumulation and less? The answer is, “Only those that have tasted even the slightest bit of the sweetness of less-ness … of nothingness.”
The Realized can taste what the Italians call il dolce di fare niente—“the sweetness of doing nothing.” The Fully Realized will shift to a level even beyond that and will understand something even simpler than “the sweetness of doing nothing,” namely, il dolce di Niente—“the sweetness of Nothing,” period.
It has been asked, “If nothingness is the real deal, then why are words gathered into books or posted on a site? Someone is doing that gathering and posting.” That comment indicates delusion. Consciousness speaks, but consciousness is without personal attributes or individuality or doership. Here, there is no person or being or consciousness choosing anything. All happens spontaneously. Words come automatically, without thought ... without a thinker.
Consciousness has neither body nor mind nor personality. It assumes no identity if pure or if re-purified. No matter how dedicated a person is to finding an identity and “being somebody” and thereby “being fulfilled,” the fact is that whatever a person might claim her or his permanent identity to be, it cannot be any part of a non-permanent relative existence. You really are not anybody.
Thus, whatever persons would claim as their real identity must be void of all notions about self-existence and void of all notions about SELF-existence. Whatever they might think they are is actually beyond beingness and non-beingness and attributes. The self is a conceptualized mirage and the SELF is a conceptualized mirage.
Both "self" and "Self" are just man-made words, and not a single, spoken or written word conveys truth. Words can merely point toward the truth. The self is limited to the relative space, and any temporary, assumed selfness is just so much space. Post-manifestation, there is limitless, infinite space.
Maharaj explained the misunderstanding (and then the understanding) this way: “Now, consciousness has identified with a form. Later, it understands that it is not the form and goes further. In a few cases it may reach the space ….”
The invitation here for the six years from May of 2005 through May of 2011 could be summarized thusly:
1. Reach the space, and then
2. Enjoy il dolce di Niente.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
