TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS
"He [Maharaj] suggests that you return again and again to ‘I am’ until it is your only abode,
outside of which nothing exists . . . ."
-- Douwe Tiemersma
"Love says, 'I am everything'. Wisdom says, 'I am nothing'.
Between the two my life flows."
-- Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
See the offer following this post for details on how you can watch on a video of a retreat the discussion of all seven of the steps on the path used by Maharaj
and
Many of those that visit this site regularly have reported on how impressed they are that they have crossed the paths on this site with a Christian minister that is not parroting the nonsense that is usually heard in religious venues but is actually sharing - via words rooted in the universal consciousness - a host of non-dual-loaded pointers to truth. He is, as was Maharaj, "the Unmanifested talking through the Manifest"; therefore, he offers a message which adumbrates the non-dual wisdom which is being shared by others that understand the message of Oneness (such as those being quoted in this series). When that happens via that minister, I share those non-duality-based "sermons."
Thus you are invited, if interested, to check out the free "Bonus" offer at the very end of this post to hear Jim Rigby discuss several topics which are central to the message offered here, including: the ill effects of the puerile teachings which religions pass along to children; the need for all persons to grow up and give up those childish beliefs; and - as adults - to understand the mature and developed (non-dual) message which Jesus the Advaitin was offering at the end of his manifestation.
Next, quotations from Maharaj will be offered, excerpted from the book QUOTATIONS AND POINTERS dealing with NON-DUALITY, ADVAITA, NISARGA YOGA and more.
The quotations and pointers from Maharaj which will be offered during the next few days will be arranged by category and subject matter. The quotes offered today will deal with:
THE NOTHINGNESS
"Everything is a play of ideas. In the state free from ideation (nirvikalpa samadhi) nothing is perceived."
"There is nothing I feel separate from; hence, I am all. No thing is me, so I am nothing."
"The world just sprouts into being out of nothing and returns to nothing."
"Is it not important to you to know whether you are a mere body, or something else? Or, maybe nothing at all?"
"Without the 'I am' there is nothing."
Questioner: "If I am neither the body nor mind, how am I aware of them? How can I perceive something quite foreign to myself?"
Maharaj: " 'Nothing is me,' is the first step."
"To know that 'nothing is' is true knowledge."
"Be nothing, know nothing, have nothing."
"You must thoroughly understand what you are, or what you could be when nothing is. When nothing is, you still are" [yet that "you" or so-called "You" involves nothing personal but is only energy-matter].
"In fact, it would be enough to understand what you are not. You are nothing."
"What is that 'you'? It is all One, and when everything is, still you are; that is understandable, but when nothing is, how can I be?"
M.: " . . . Gold is the basis for all gold jewellery. Abstract the name and shape from the jewellery and the gold becomes obvious. Be free of name and form and of the desires and fears they create, then what remains?"
Q.: "Nothingness."
M.: "Yes, the void remains."
"For the path of return (nivritti), naughting oneself is necessary. My stand I take where nothing (paramakash) is . . . ."
"I am not attached. I am nothing, and nothing is afraid of no thing."
"On the contrary, everything is afraid of the nothing, for when a thing touches nothing, it becomes nothing. It is like a bottomless well: whatever falls into it, disappears."
"To be nothing, to have nothing, to keep nothing for oneself is the greatest gift . . . ."
"The ultimate state is that state in which nothing exists, neither I, nor you, nor manifestation."
"That which sees all this, and 'the nothing' too, is the inner teacher."
"Verbal teaching has its use: it prepares the mind for voiding itself of its accumulations."
"Once you have nothing, you have no problems."
"When you hold on to nothing, no trouble arises."
Q.: "Are you always in a state of samadhi?"
M.: "Of course not. Samadhi is a state of mind, after all. I am beyond all experience, even of samadhi. I am the great devourer and destroyer: whatever I touch dissolves into void (akash)."
"There is the body. Inside the body appears to be an observer and outside - a world under observation. The observer and his observation as well as the world observed all appear and disappear together. Beyond it all, there is void. This void is one for all."
" . . . Your true home is in nothingness, in emptiness of all content."
"The sum total of my spirituality now is nothing. Even that word 'nothing' is not there, so there is no spirituality left."
"First I thought I was the body; then I experienced that I was not the body but I was the consciousness; then I got the experience that this consciousness is not really me and that there is no form, no individuality, no nothing."
Q.: "At the back of my mind there is a hum going on all the time. Numerous weak thoughts swarm and buzz and this shapeless cloud is always with me. Is it the same with you? What is at the back of your mind?"
M.: "Where there is no mind, there is no back to it. I am all front . . . no back! The void speaks, the void remains."
" . . . The immovable centre of the movable [is] the eternal witness of the transient. The centre is a point of void and the witness a point of pure awareness; they know themselves to be as nothing . . . ."
“The 'Supreme Absolute' . . . is only a name for communication purposes.”
"Nothing is useful. When one subsides into [authenticity], nothing matters, because nothing is. When 'I' subsides, it's all awareness."
Yet . . .
"Awareness is not aware of its awareness."
M.: "I used to create a world and populate it - now I don't do it anymore."
Q: "Where do you live, then?"
M: "In the void beyond being and non-being, beyond consciousness. This void is also fullness; do not pity me. It is like a man saying: 'I have done my work. Now, there is nothing left to do'."
Again, "I have the courage to be as nothing and to see 'the world' as it is: nothing"
and
"Something becomes nothing. Nothing was, nothing remains."
"I am the Unmanifested talking through the Manifest. When the body, the mind, the vital breath drop off, nothing happens; only I, the Absolute [energy], prevail always."
"I am conscious and unconscious, both conscious and unconscious, neither conscious nor unconscious -- to all this I am witness -- but really there is no witness, because there is nothing to be a witness to. I am perfectly empty of all mental formations, void of mind -- yet fully aware."
"The ultimate state . . . is that state where no needs are felt at any time, where nothing is useful for anything."
"I am infinite peace and silence in which nothing appears."
"Have you felt the all-embracing emptiness in which the universe swims like a cloud in the blue sky?"
"It is the clinging to sensate life that binds you. If you could experience the inner void fully, the explosion into the totality would be near."
"In that pure light of consciousness there is nothing, not even the idea of nothing. There is only light."
"The final answer is this: nothing is. All is a momentary appearance in the field of the universal consciousness; continuity as name and form is a mental formation only, easy to dispel."
As for being alert to thoughts and words and actions rooted in duality and avoiding their influence, consider:
"Whatever spiritual things you aspire to know are all happening in
this objective world, in the illusion. All this is happening in the
objective world. All is dishonesty. There is no truth in this fraud."
He understood, in fact, that . . .
“This is all a big hoax, a big fraud, created out of nothingness. Can you create something out of nothing?"
[He could as well have said, "Advertisers, religious 'experts' and 'spiritual giants,' and many present-day politicians with their sociopathic and psychopathic personality disorders are all using duality-based thoughts and words and actions to hide the truth and spread their dishonesty; the words coming out of those presently in charge of the federal government in the U.S. contain no truth, for they are frauds; and those unconsciously parroting duality-based beliefs rooted in religious dogma and / or spirituality are equally dishonest and fraudulent."]
To be continued.
NEW OFFER:
Watch an updated seven-hour streaming video of a retreat with Floyd Henderson which can be viewed by anyone with internet access. (In this video, all seven of the steps on "the path" as taught by Maharaj are explained and discussed.)
If interested, click the button below to pay the fee via PayPal. You will then receive an email which includes the link for you to view the private, unlisted video via an arrangement we have made with YouTube, Inc. You do not have to have a YouTube account to watch this privately streamed video.
(If you do not receive the link promptly, your computer or email provider may have high filter settings. Check your spam and trash folders because some providers automatically transfer emails containing links to those folders.)
To access the seven-hour streaming video of a retreat and begin watching right away, click this "Buy Now" button:
Please enter into the silence of contemplation.
[NOTE: The four most recent posts are below. You may access all of the posts in this series and in the previous series and several thousand other posts as well by clicking on the links in the "Recent Posts and Archives" section.]
In addition to the five non-duality books made available without charge by Andy Gugar, Jr. (see “FREEBIES” above), you can now access nearly 3,200+ posts for any topics of interest to you.
"Bonus":
Those who read the posts offered here regularly are aware of the following:
**During my early years, I was offered the most fundamental, doctrinaire, nonsensical, fictional, mythical and false stories and tales and beliefs which were presented as "the not-to-ever-be-questioned truth."
[I would come to understand that "fundamental," when used rightly, is used to point to those who have "fun" "damning" anything that's "mental," or more accurately, rational and logical and sane.)
I was programmed and conditioned to never question anything I was told. I rebelled and did so anyway; that is, I questioned all of their nonsense and nonsensical teachings, often to the detriment of the well-being of my butt [because of a parent who believed in the Bible's Jewish-based dictate, "If you spare the rod, you will spoil the child"].
For almost all persons in that religious venue - as in all other religious venues - beliefs were typically presented at a child level, were accepted at a child level, and were then clung to throughout adulthood and throughout an entire lifetime without ever moving beyond the childish beliefs which were passed on to them.
I came to see that it is incumbent upon adults that would be free of learned ignorance (and then free, period) to question all that they were taught during their early years, all that was passed down from their parents (which had been passed down to them and never questioned), and everything else as well (including what they are now being told by many business people and advertisers, by religious or spiritual leaders, by political leaders, etc.)
Those who read regularly these postings are also aware that, during the 70 years of manifestation here, there is only one religious minister I have met who has the courage and the understanding and the wisdom to see clearly where religions are in error, to see when religious messaging is flawed, and to offer truth-and-reality-based pointers instead.
That man is Rev. Jim Rigby.
(Is Jim "anti-religion"? Of course not. He is, however, opposed to the typical messages being shared nowadays which reinforce ignorant beliefs based in ancient myths and superstitions rather than messages which point to truth.)
Recently, he shared a 21-minute message in which his early experiences with traditional religious messaging - and his journey to be freed from the influence of that - paralleled exactly my early experiences with religion and the seeking of freedom from that - and all - learned ignorance.
For those with 21-minutes to spare, you are invited to listen to one of his recent messages which explains what he has come to understand about religion and what it could do were it to offer something quite different from what most religions offer nowadays.
If interested, click here.
