THOUGHTS...

Thoughts can get taken so seriously. Sometimes thoughts become too important and what has been revealed is to just let it all drop.  Everything you think…just give it all up.  None of it is going to matter when you die ... so just die to it now.  Then you are empty again (as you always truly are), clear, empty, pure, pristine; Stillness.  

It has been mentioned (by Wayne) about looking at thoughts and beliefs like the flavors "chocolate" or "vanilla."  You pick one and let's say you really like "chocolate" and you go around telling everyone how good chocolate is and why they should like chocolate, you give taste tests.   Some people who originally liked vanilla, might now like chocolate, because you introduced it to them and they weren't aware of it, and came to find they like it more.  Then after all this work, you may find years later that you don't like chocolate anymore, ate too much of it and now are an avid vanilla eater and you once again go around telling people how great vanilla is and that now chocolate is not good for you cause you read a book on chocolate that says it is no longer good for you and you begin converting people to vanilla.

This is how it is with thoughts and beliefs.  They change over time, you pick one today and tomorrow you will find something that says something in a different direction and you start following that.  However, in the end it will not matter what flavor you preferred of anything.  When you die, you have to (figure of speech) leave your preferences at the door.  When you die, all your beliefs, ideas, thoughts die.  You return to what you already are right now, before the beliefs and thoughts.  Funny, that the beliefs and thoughts that one thinks will reveal to them who they are, where they are going, and what they are in; are the exact things that keep the Revelation from your awareness. 

At the end of your life all beliefs are stripped from you, however, you have the ability right now to just drop everything you believe, everything you are fighting for, all the things that you attempt to convert others to see your way; and just simply Be.

Nothing to teach, nothing to learn, just simply Being.

WISDOM HAS NO PATH...

The following is a written Essay for Philosophy where we were asked to share what came up for us while reading the Bhagavad Gita and this is the in response to Chapter Four on Wisdom.

The Bhagavad Gita is written on two levels, one that speaks to the mind and one that speaks to the Heart.  Although, ultimately, there are not two separate things, for the purpose of this writing, we will imagine that there are.  One cannot know why some are “touched” by the Truth, while others seemingly are not.  It does not make one better than the other; only more Aware. 

When one is touched by Truth, the mind begins to be pushed to the backburner.  This is not always a simple process, and depends on how deeply one relies on the mind as its tool to receive information.  If one uses the mind only to process (or release what comes through), then the transition is much smoother because the jump from mind to Heart is not as far.   If one relies on the mind to understand the process, then one begins to go in circles, because the mind cannot understand what it is IN, and all attempts to understand creates a kind of insanity (which then creates fear, and fear; breeds fear). However, it will only go on for as long as one resists and continues the attempt to bring Heart to mind, instead of relaxing mind into Heart.  Sounds simple, and ultimately it is, however, one is wise not to underestimate the power of mind to remain in control (the mind thrives on complexity; and the Heart Reveals itSelf in Simplicity).  The good news is that there are not two separate things (Heart and mind) because the mind is IN the Heart.  One does not have to fear insanity or anything at all; because no matter what, you are always in yourSelf.  However, the cycle of attempting to understand can get out of hand for a while, again depending on whether one begins to accept that they will not ever understand.  If that is the case then one naturally relaxes and lets go of understanding, and begins to Know.  What is the difference between understanding and Knowing (with a capital “K”)?  The difference is that understanding comes from the mind and is something that can be explained and understood by the mind (it is proof of something).  “Knowing” comes from what the mind is IN and is Revealed.  When you “Know” something you do not require proof (you don’t need proof of air to breath and you don’t need proof of knowing; to Know).  Words will not ever explain this, but if you Know or are at least willing to know where you are being pointed, then you will need no words. 

There can be no other way, direction than towards Truth.  Action and in-action are both in Truth. When the Self falls asleep too deeply … it Awakens out of the call through the mind from the Heart.  The dream that one is in is meant to “feel” real.  That is the Gift for Self to experience itself as something “appearing” as other than what it is.  However, when it gets too dark, too serious, a call is sent out to Self, which Awakens itself, and brings the Light unto the world. 

Self is not a person, it does not think, yet all thinking is in it.  It understands everything without understanding, its intelligence is so great that there is no way to comprehend or describe what intelligence even is.  Self is before your own breath, it is beyond anything that can be imagined, because imagining is in Self.  It cannot be used, but it uses everything to reveal itSelf to itself.  It is the only thing that lasts and it is not a thing.  All paradoxes point to it, but will not ever help you to understand it (and IT is not an it).

One does not need to be smart to be wise.  Wisdom is not learned in books or in schooling; it is not something that is taught.  You are born Wise and then it is covered over by ignorance and learning.  Wisdom is available to all who seek it, however it cannot be sought in the world.  The world will lead one away from wisdom, because wisdom is not in the world.  However as one becomes Realized in Wisdom the world then begins to point one back into itSelf.  Prior to that, the world teaches separation and that everyone is an individual.  Wisdom is the discovery that “we” are all ONE (less than One) and the Same and that it is only “in the world” that we appear to be different.  (Talks With Ramana Maharshi, Video.)  

Behind the face, behind the thoughts about who one is, is the Still Wisdom of who you are.  No one can give it to you, however you can use these words as a reminder to begin to look.  To become Wise, you must begin to question everything you believe in, everything that you hold dear, and nothing is held onto more tightly than the thought “I.”  (Austin 31.)

When you are truly ready for Wisdom and Knowledge, you will begin to question who you are.  One does this by asking one simple question and it is the only question one ever need ask, in any situation, it is first person singular, the question; “Who am I?”  Ask it with all sincerity and accept no answer that comes.  Dig and dig and when you tire of digging, dig some more.

Wisdom has no path.  However self-interrogation leads one Home.

Works Cited

 Austin, Wayne, Dialogues with a Master, The Spider, Create Space, Print.

(or http://www.endofthesearch.com/the-spider--who-am-i-really.html)

            Austin, Wayne, First There is a Mountain, Who Am I? Really, Create Space, Print.

(or http://www.ftiam.org/57-who-am-i-really.html)

Cinefx Productions, “Talks With Ramana Maharishi,” Talk 146, Internet Video.

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weXKuURMgMs&feature=youtu.be)

"Who Am I?" A Strategy For Self-Realization." Hinduism Today 30.2 (2008): 52-53. Academic Search Complete. Web. 4 May 2013.

LOVE HAS NO OPPOSITE.

TRUE LOVE

True Love is very different from the love that one proclaims in this world, though the love that is proclaimed in this world is in True Love, it is not the same thing. 

In this world, what people call “love” varies from moment to moment.  If someone doesn’t do what you want, or leaves you or doesn’t behave the way you want them to, then “love” is removed and even sometimes replaced by hate (which is still Love just riding on the emotion of anger).  

Look at all the marriages that end in divorce, do you know two people that were madly in love only later to find they can barely stand the sight of the other.  It is not that they didn’t Love one another, it is that they chose the concept of “love,” which is love described by those in this world, over True Love.  True Love doesn’t mean you don’t get hurt, it doesn’t mean you stay together, it doesn’t mean anything at all … True Love just IS.  It is when you can sit alone silently and look honestly at those that have touched your life ... everyone of them and know that it is Love that brought you together and it was the ideas of what Love should “look” like that pulled one apart.

Ever find yourself saying, “well, if he would only do this or she would only do that, if everything was only different from how it is, then I would love them.”  But Love doesn’t have rules only you do.  Love doesn’t pick and choose who it Loves, only you do.  Love just IS and it has no boundaries and it has no limits.  It has been the acceptance of the concept of what “love” should look like that hides that everything; is in Love.  

You are in a constant state of Love.  But when you find that the one you say “I Love You” too, leaves or dies or something happens to that one that you have projected “love” onto (and this isn’t saying there is anything wrong with doing that, just become aware that you are) and you find that you cannot keep anything in this world, everything disappears and reappears as something else, then when that one disappears, what remains is ... Love. 

The pain you may feel at the loss; is also Love.  Sorrow is Love.  Happiness is Love.  Joy is Love.  Anger is Love.  See we only want (usually) the Happiness or the Joy and Excitement of Love, but also the Sorrow, the Pain, the Depression of Love is just as important because all show the depths of Love.  So when the one you love comes ... you experience the bliss of Happiness, Joy and Loving and when they go; you experience Pain, the Sadness, the Sorrow of the same. 

As you begin to see this as a truth, then you can begin to put your attention on what the concept “love” appears IN … TRUE LOVE.  It is not outside of you, you are IN IT. 

If Love is the True State (which it is … without opposite) then it does not come and go, it is always there. 

The way to begin to see this is to think of your child, if you have one, or someone that you love unconditionally.  If you love them unconditionally, there is nothing they could do in this world to change that.  So now you need to begin to look at “is there anything they could do in this world to change that?”   If they could, then it is not Love. 

True Love does not change because of actions or anything in this world.  The closer you get to unconditional love the closer you get to Knowing True Love.  And unconditional love begins to grow as you allow it to grow in you. 

It also spreads compassion.

Not everyone will see things the way you do, but you have the space in you for all things to be. Let it spread out from your immediate family to everyone that comes in your orbit. 

It doesn’t mean you have to do anything any other way than you always have, it just allows the space for people to be as they are.  You will begin to stop wanting to change them, because you know that you love them in spite of how they are.  It doesn’t mean you won’t act the same way you always have around them, but something in you will begin to pay attention to what everything appears IN, which is LOVE.

LOVE HAS NO OPPOSITE.