Snatam Kaur: Earth’s Prayer

Being and Becoming by Andrew Cohen

Mirabai Ceiba: Har Mukanday

“I am Light” by Gary Layman, Author | Book Review

By John David Van Hove

Although only the  individual seeker can unlock the “personal doorways” to the previous three questions, there is still additional help along the way. Rarely does the hand of Divinity touch a human life-stream and completely transform it instantly. This unfoldment is a Journey. However, the journey can be ACCELERATED with right knowledge, faith and persistence of purpose from the Source of all.It has been my privilege and honor to have worked  with some of the finest and most dedicated healers and teachers on the planet. I have taken those years of study and direct experience and distilled  the essence of it into my new book “I AM LIGHT”—The Prodigal Journey and Beyond”.I am inviting you to take that journey with me in this three part narrative and applied study. It is my sincere belief that you will find additional wellbeing in its application.I am aware that there are many fine healers and teachers in the field of alternative medicine and practical mysticism today. However, if you are seeking an uncomplicated easily applied set of principles that any “layman” can use, I believe this book will be of great assistance to you

“In reading “I am Light” by Gary Layman I was struck by the profound significance of this grand vision of what’s coming in the next next phase of human evolution when we’re all consciously connecting with Source through the “I am” presence. His book is  an inspired prayer full of wisdom for the “new age” being born in these turbulent times – a channeled, semi-autobiographical story of what’s to come for all of us in the days ahead with practical tools for meeting this challenge/opportunity within on this ultimate path of love.” – John David Van Hove

Order your book online at: www.IamLightEternal.com

Source:  ICR’s Global Resource Center

Supermind by Andrew Cohen

 

Heaven on Earth: To Renounce or Not Renounce

To Renounce or Not Renounce

That was the question posed to the great Ramana Maharshi – The life of action need not be Renounced

Question : The yogis say that one must renounce this world and go off into secluded jungles if one wishes to find the truth.
Ramana Maharshi: The life of action need not be renounced. If you meditate for an hour or two every day you can then carry on with your duties. If you meditate in the right manner then the current of mind induced will continue to flow even in the midst of your work. It is as though there were two ways of expressing the same idea; the same line which you take in meditation will be expressed in your activities.

Question: What will be the result of doing that?
Ramana Maharshi: As you go on you will find that your attitude towards people, events and objects gradually changes. Your actions will tend to follow your meditations of their own accord.

Question: Then you do not agree with the yogis?
Ramana Maharshi: A man should surrender the personal selfishness which binds him to this world. Giving up the false self is the true renunciation.

Question: How is it possible to become selfless while leading a life of worldly activity?
Ramana Maharshi: There is no conflict between work and wisdom.

Question: Do you mean that one can continue all the old activities in one’s profession, for instance, and at the same time get enlightenment ?
Ramana Maharshi: Why not ? But in that case one will not think that it is the old personality which is doing the work, because one’s consciousness will gradually become transferred until it is centered in that which is beyond the little self.

Question: If a person is engaged in work, there will be little time left for him to meditate.
Ramana Maharshi: Setting apart time for meditation is only for the merest spiritual novices. A man who is advancing will begin to enjoy the deeper beatitude whether he is at work or not. While his hands are in society, he keeps his head cool in solitude.

Question: Then you do not teach the way of yoga?
Ramana Maharshi: The yogi tries to drive his mind to the goal, as a cowherd drives a bull with a stick, but on this path the seeker coaxes the bull by holding out a handful of grass.

Source: from David Godman Excellent Book “Be As You Are”

Man is Asleep (Awareness) by Osho

One of the most important things to be understood about man (i.e., human beings) is that man is asleep. Even while he thinks he is awake, he is not. His wakefulness is very fragile; his wakefulness is so tiny it doesn’t matter at all. His wakefulness is only a beautiful name but utterly empty.

You sleep in the night, you sleep in the day – from birth to death you go on changing your patterns of slep, but you never really awaken. Just by opening the eyes don’t befool yourself that you are awake. Unless the inner eyes open – unless your insde becomes full of light, unless you can see yourself, who you are – don’t think that you are awake. That is the greatest illusion man lives in. And once you accept that you are already awake, then there is no question of making any effort to be awake.

The first thing to sink deep in your heart is that you are asleep, utterly asleep. You are dreaming, day in, day out. You are dreaming sometimes with open eyes and sometimes with closed eyes, but you are dreaming – you are a dream. You are not yet a reality.

Of course in a dream whatsoever you do is meaningless. Whatsoever you think is pointless, whatsoever you project remains part of your dreams and never allows you to see that which is.  Hence all the buddhas have insisted on only one thing: Awaken! Continuously, for centuries, their whole teaching can be contained in a single phrase: Be awake. And they have been devising methods, strategies; they have been creating contexts and spaces and energy fields in which you can be shocked into awareness.

Yes, unless you are shocked, shaken to your very foundations, you will not awaken. The sleep has been so long that it has reached to the very core of your being; you are soaked in it. Each cell of your body and each fiber of your mind has become full of sleep. It is not a small phenomenon. Hence great effort is needed to be alert, to be attentive, to be watchful, to become a witness.

If all the buddhas of the world agree on any one single theme, this is it – that man as he is, is asleep, and man as he should be, should be awake. Wakefulness is the goal and wakefulness is the taste of all their teachings. Zarathustra, Lao Tzu, Jesus, Buddha, Bahauddin, Kabir, Nanak – all the awakened ones have been teaching one single theme…in different languages, in different metaphors, but their song is the same. Just as the sea tastes of salt – whether the sea is tasted from the north or from the east or from the west, the sea always tastes of salt – the taste of buddhahood is wakefulness.

But you will not make any effort if you go on believing that you are already awake. Then there is no question of makng any effort – why bother?

And you have created religions, gods, prayers, rituals, out of your dreams – your gods are as much part of your dreams as anythng else. Your politics is part of your dreams, your religions are part of your dreams, your poetry, your painting, your art – whatsoever you do, because you are asleep, you do things according to your own state of mind.

Your gods cannot be different from you. Who will create them? Who will give them shape and color and form? You create them, you scupt them; they have eyes like you, noses like you – and minds like you! The Old Testament God says, “I am a very jealous God!” Now who has created this God who is jealous? God cannot be jealous, and if God is jealous, then what is wrong in being jealous? If even God is jealous, why should you be thought to be doing something wrong when you are jealous? Jealousy is divine!

The Old Testament God says, “I am a very angry God! If you don’t follow my commandments, I will destroy you. You will be thrown into hellfire for eternity. And because I am very jealous, don’t worship anybody else. I cannot tolerate it.” Who created such a God? It must be out of our own jealousy, out of our own anger, that you have created this image. It is your projection, it is your shadow. It echoes you and nobody else. And the same is the case with all gods of all religions.

It is because of this that Buddha never talked about God. He said, “What is the point of talking about God to people who are asleep? They will listen in their sleep. They will dream about whatsoever is said to them, and they will create their own gods – which will be utterly false, utterly impotent, utterly meaningless. It is better not to have such gods.”

That’s why Buddha is not interested in talking about gods. His whole interest is in waking you up.

It is said about a Buddhist enlightened master who was sitting by the side of the river one evening, enjoying the sound of the water, the sound of the wind passing through the trees…A man came and asked him, “Can you tell me in a single word the essence of your religion?”

The master remained silent, utterly silent, as if he had not heard the question. The questioner said, “Are you deaf or something?”

The master said, “I have heard your question, and I have answered it too! Silence is the answer. I remained silent – that pause, that interval, was my answer.”

The man said, “I cannot understand such a mysterious answer. Can’t you be a little more clear?”

So the master wrote on the sand “meditation,” in small letters with his finger. The man said, “I can read now. It is a little better than at first. At least I have got a word to ponder over. But can’t you make it a little more clear?”

The master wrote again “MEDITATION.” Of course this time he wrote in bigger letters. The man was feeling a little embarrassed, puzzled, offended, angry. He said, “Again you write meditation? Can’t you be a little clear for me?”

And the master wrote in big letter, capital letters, “M E D I T A T I O N.”

The man said, “You seem to be mad!”

The master said, “I have already come down very much. The first answer was the right answer, the second was not so right, the third even more wrong, the fourth has gone very wrong” – because when you write MEDITATION with capital letters you have made a god out of it.

That’s why the word God is written with a capital G. Whenever you want to make something supreme, ultimate, you write it with a capital letter. The master said, “I have already committed a sin.” He erased all those words he had written and he said, “Please listen to my first answer – only then I am true.”

Silence is the space in which one awakens, and the noisy mind is the space in which one remains asleep. If your mind continues chattering, you are asleep. Sitting silently, if the mind disappears and you can hear the chattering birds and no minds inside, a silence…this whistle of the bird, the chirping, and no mind functioning in your had, utter silence…then awareness wells up in you. It does not come from the outside, it arises in you, it grows in you. Otherwise, remember; you are asleep.

Source: Awareness by Osho

Transformation and Enlightenment

Photo: Alex Grey

TRANSFORMATION

Everything fully experienced transforms into joy. When we refuse to see, continue to judge, ignore, avoid or deny, we get stuck and suffer pain. Then we react to the pain and recoil from the very experiences needed to have joy in our lives. This shadow work must be fully engaged. The only way out is through all the way home. Any resistance to the necessary disorientation and chaos of the Dark Night of the Soul prevents the transformation.

Before metamorphosis into a butterfly can occur, the caterpillar must experience the necessary disorientation and chaos in the cocoon. There’s no easy, comfortable way through. There’s no escape from the pain. You cannot help the caterpillar by cutting into the cocoon. This doesn’t help the process.

PAIN AS INITIATION

Pain is a necessary initiation to build physical and spiritual strength. The human brain due to trauma and emotional imprints of the limbic system, social programming and pain avoidance is conditioned to never fully experience anything. We’re programmed to abort the metamorphosis process, to avoid pain and discomfort while pursuing greater pleasure and comfort even at the expense of our ultimate happiness and ecstatic joy.

Thus our tiny caterpillar self doesn’t become a beautiful butterfly self through which the living presence of God/Source can be directly experienced, or at least not very often. We catch glimpses now and again.

STRENGTH

Strength is a neurological function of the human brain not a measure of muscles. Women giving birth, Olympic athletes, or this particular man being forced to grow or suffer in prison are examples of experiences that build strength of character from which there is no escape. So are life-threatening illnesses, chronic disease and near-death experiences. Our soul engineers these experiences for the explicit purpose of transformation and eventually sustained states of enlightenment.

Neurological inhibitions reinforced by limiting belief systems weaken human beings. Weakness is a symptom of disconnection from the infinite abundance of the Source-Of-All-That-Is. Be strong. You are stronger than you know. Be willing to fully experience discomfort and pain so that the butterfly of spiritual transformation and ultimate joy can emerge naturally.

ENLIGHTENMENT

Enlightenment is a natural process. All babies are born in an “enlightened” state of awareness. Children and adults are conditioned out of that natural state. The human brain is conditioned to be out-of-balance with nature. Many veils of illusion must be revealed, then reveiled, and an active practice designed to reorient human beings towards awakening.

Enlightenment is not learned, it’s given as your birthright. It only requires focused attention and practice. The process is mystical and scientific, spiritual and physical. Enlightenment requires a change in brain function including reduction of chronic hyperactivity in the parietal lobes which is where the self-identity is formed, meaning is assigned to perceptions and separation from “others” and God/Source is constantly reinforced.

Enlightenment is not attained by effort, trying, hoping, desiring or wanting. All these expenditures of brain energy reinforce an existentially separate self which prohibit enlightenment and attaining a state of ecstasy.

Enlightenment also requires an activation of the frontal lobes to shift from a state of enlightenment to God/Source realization. God/Source realization is the experience of God as a living presence in the consciousness of a human being. The third brain, or neocortex, is “lit-up” like a lightbulb, and a high-speed, fiber-optic light connection with the Source-Of-All-That-Is is activated.

The frontal lobes are connected with individual will and intention. A weakened will power, low self-esteem, lack of confidence and the like, blocks the full flowering of the individual which is necessary for self-realization as the precursor to the experience of God/Source realization. Diminishing spiritual practices that demolish individual will in favor of allegedly “divine” will alone and those paths that judge the individual self as “lower” or “lessor” or inferior consciousness will actually diminish the human capacity to know/experience God/Source directly.

FLOWERING OF THE INDIVIDUAL

Let the individual will and self blossom (similarly and metaphorically like the human brain). Then the true human being, without self-administered resistance, can surrender into the greater reality of God/Source realization. For human beings spiritual transformation has to be anchored on a physical level consistently integrated with the mental/quantum domain of thoughts and feelings.

In a moment of grace the Source-Of-All-That-Is wanted me to share this commitment to my/your/our spiritual transformation for every human being. So be it!

Source: Inspired by Tom Robbin’s book “Jitterbug Perfume”.