posted January 30, 2008 11:57 AM            

~ Valerian

posted February 01, 2008 08:09 AM            

~ Norman Mailer

posted February 01, 2008 02:59 PM            

You are not separate from that illusion. You are the illusion. If one illusion goes, it is always replaced with another illusion. Why? Because the ending of the illusion is the ending of 'you'. That is the death. The ending of belief is the ending of the 'you' that is there. So, that is not the poetic, romantic death -- of "dying to your yesterdays." Physical death is the only way through which you flush out what your whole culture has put in there.

Thought has survived for millions and millions of years, and it knows every trick in the world. It will do anything to maintain its continuity.

What is this silence you are talking about? The silence operates there in the city market. When I am talking, it is the expression of the silence. You think there is no silence, when I am talking? You think there is silence when you close your eyes, sit in one corner and try to stop the flow of thoughts? You are just choked--that is not silence. Go to the forest--that roar is the silence. Go to a sea--that is silence. Go right into the center of the desert--that is silence. A volcano erupting--that is silence. Not the silent mind trying to experience "silence." Silence is energy bursting. What is the `silence' that you are after? Do you hear those trucks passing by on the road and the flushing of the toilet? Do you want to escape from all this and go and sit in the caves? There is noise inside you wherever you go.

I am not condemning anything... All I am doing is to shake a person's attachments to anybody, however great he is proclaimed to be, strip the person of everything, and then he is on his own."

No instrument is necessary for us to create the realization that there is nothing to understand.

Thought is violence because it is trying to protect itself. There is a basic contradiction in what the body demands and the movement of the thought which is interested in self-perpetuation. There is no such thing as you and me. The totality has created you and me. You have no isolated existence. The demand of being an individual is the real cause of suffering. The "how" is absent for me. The "hows" dished out in the market-place are not for me. The one who is living doesn't ask how to live.

My interest is to emphasize that [thought] is not the instrument, and there is no other instrument. And when once this hits you, dawns upon you that thought is not the instrument, and that there is no other instrument, then there is no need for you to find out if any other instrument is necessary. No need for any other instrument. This very same structure that we are using, the instrument which we are using, has in a very ingenious way invented all kinds of things like intuition, right insight, right this, that, and the other. And to say that through this very insight we have come to understand something is the stumbling block. All insights, however extraordinary they may be, are worthless, because it is thought that has created what we call insight, and through that it is maintaining its continuity and status quo.

I am called a materialist.... The certainty I have today that there is no mind is something which I cannot transmit to anybody, however hard I may try, because the very thing which we are using to communicate is in jeopardy, and you are not ready to accept that possibility.

posted February 01, 2008 03:00 PM            

A: Exactly. That is what I am trying to emphasize. It is just not possible for us to produce enlightened people on an assembly line. You know, if you look at history, even a country like India, which prides itself as a land of spirituality, has produced only a very few enlightened people. You can count them on your fingers. But unfortunately, in the market place, we have many claimants who say that they are enlightened, and they are in turn out to enlighten everybody. There is a market for that kind of thing. The demand and supply principle is responsible for that. But actually an enlightened man or a free man, if there is one, is not interested in freeing or enlightening anybody. This is because he has no way of knowing that he is a free man, that he is an enlightened man. It is not something that can be shared with somebody, because it is not in the area of experience at all.

posted February 01, 2008 03:12 PM            

Perhaps apathy, and not aspiration,
is the true sign of spiritual development?

"Spiritual development" - ha!
Dont make me laugh.
Only the soul develops, not the spirit.
And the "end" of soul development
is just the recurrence of soul development.
I am in no hurry to get there.
"There" does not exist.
And I am in no hurry to get back here.
I'm already here.

The entire history of Being exists only to bring you to this moment,
and the entire future of Being is also its history.

I am a thinking artist.
Primarily an artist, not a thinker.
If I was a dramatic artist, or a visual artist,
I would still be an artist first, and an actor, or painter second.
I am a thinking artist.
I play with thought because it is my medium.
Because thinking is fun for me.
I make statements, and admire them, true or false,
because they are beautiful to me in some respect.
I am not attatched to my thoughts, or statements,
as many people are to the ideas they call "true".
I do not claim to speak the truth.
And so what if that is a lie?

posted February 01, 2008 03:50 PM              

"Perhaps apathy, and not aspiration,
is the true sign of spiritual development?"

Yes, perhapth
Thanks.

posted February 01, 2008 04:02 PM            

Thankth.

We both have this one, T.

Undesirable consequences ***
Valid during many months: This period can be a severe test of your grip on reality. It can be very confusing and cause you to be misled in a variety of ways. You may suddenly find yourself in the grip of a total delusion that you believe to be the most real thing you have ever encountered. It is very important that you consider very carefully any new idea or philosophy before allowing it to take control of your life. One danger of this influence is that you may allow some idea to control you.
At best, ideas and philosophies are devices that help you understand and make sense of the confusion of everyday experience. But under this influence ideas may become a substitute for experience, so that you begin to believe in things that you have never experienced. You will be particularly attracted to ideas that help you avoid confrontations with the everyday world.

Sometimes this influence may cause you to turn to drugs, usually psychedelics or amphetamines, which provide mystical-seeming experiences, rather than alcohol, barbiturates or opiates. But this manifestation is likely only if you have a tendency in this direction anyway.

You may turn to the study of mystical disciplines in an effort to understand what is happening to you. In itself this is not bad, but you will have to be very careful that such studies do not totally alter your sense of proportion. It is best to expose yourself to these new ideas gradually, so that you can integrate new understandings with old and thereby prevent this energy from being disruptive.

If you live consistently and are willing to deal with the real world and handle its challenges, this influence can open up aspects of reality that you have never dreamed of. It can signify an enlightenment experience at some level. But if you try to avoid reality altogether, this influence may bring about the state of unconsciousness you desire, but with undesirable consequences.

posted February 01, 2008 09:48 PM            

That ain't right.

posted February 03, 2008 12:24 PM            

~ George Matthew Adams

posted February 03, 2008 02:37 PM            

He was not a man, but a planet, exerting a godlike influence upon the ways of men, and, in particular, those men attuned to his special vibration. His influence is immortal, because it is subtle, and not gross. It is not the influence of men; not the influence of brute force; -- but the influence of gods; the influence of inspiration. All bards who satisfy the planets become planets.

posted February 03, 2008 11:54 PM            

~ Mortimer Adler

posted February 07, 2008 09:28 PM              

"Not to be able to stop thinking is a dreadful affliction, but we don't realize this because almost everyone is suffering from it, so it is considered normal. This incessant mental noise prevents you from finding that realm of inner stillness that is inseparable from Being."

Thinking and consciousness are not synonymous. Thinking is only a small aspect of consciousness. Thought cannot exist without consciousness, but consciousness does not need thought.

'What a liberation to realize that the "voice in my head" is not who I am. Who am I then?

The one who sees that.'

If you keep your attention in the body as much as possible, you will be anchored in the Now. You won't lose yourself in the external world, and you won't lose yourself in your mind. Thoughts and emotions, fears and desires may still be there to some extent, but they won't take you over.

Focus your attention on the Now and tell me what problem you have at this moment.

You don't need to condemn. Just observe, That is sin. That is insanity. That is unconsciousness. Above all, don't forget to observe your own mind. Seek out the root of the insanity there.

The word God has become empty of meaning through thousands of years of misuse. I use it sometimes, but I do so sparingly. By misuse, I mean that people who have never even glimpsed at the realm of the sacred, the infinite vastness behind that word, use it with great conviction, as if they knew what they are talking about. Or, they argue against it, as if they knew what it is that they are denying. This misuse gives rise to absurd beliefs, assertions, and egoic delusions, such as "My or our God is the only true God, and your God is false," or Neitzche's famous statement "God is dead."

The mind is a superb instrument if used rightly. Used wrongly, however, it becomes very destructive. To put it more accurately, it is not so much that you use your mind wrongly -- you usually don't use it at all. It uses you. This is the disease. You believe that you are your mind. This is the delusion. The instrument has taken you over.

Being is the eternal, ever-present One Life beyond the myriad forms of life that are subject to birth and death. However, Being is not only beyond but also deep within every form as its innermost invisible and indestructible essence. This means that is is accessible to you now as your own deepest self, your true nature. But don't seek to grasp it with your mind. Don't try to understand it. You can know it only when the mind is still.

Why does the mind habitually deny or resist the Now? Because it cannot function and remain in control without time, which is past and future, so it perceives the timeless Now as threatening. Time and mind are in fact inseparable.

Are you polluting the world or cleaning up the mess? You are responsible for your inner space; nobody else is, just as you are responsible for the planet. As within, so without: If humans clear inner pollution, then they will also cease to create outer pollution.

If you find your here and now intolerable and it makes you unhappy, you have three options: remove yourself from the situation, change it, or accept it totally. If you want to take responsibility for your life, you must choose one of those three options, and you must choose now. Then accept the consequences. No excuses. No negativity. No psychic pollution. Keep your inner space clear.

Internal and external are ultimately one. When you no longer perceive the world as hostile, there is no more fear, and when there is no more fear, you think, speak and act differently. Love and compassion arise, and they affect the world.

Not all thinking and all emotion are of the ego. They turn into ego only when you identify with them and they take you over completely, that is to say, when they become "I."

There is never a time when your life is not "this moment." Is this not a fact?

Eckhart Tolle