| Nisargadatta Maharaj |
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| Favorite Maharaj quotes selected by the Nisargadatta discussion group members |
"We are the creators and creatures of each other, causing and bearing each other's burden." ** I find that somehow, by shifting the focus of attention, I become the very thing I look at, and experience the kind of consciousness it has; I become the inner witness of the thing. I call this capacity of entering other focal points of consciousness, love; you may give it any name you like. Love says "I am everything". Wisdom says "I am nothing". Between the two, my life flows. Since at any point of time and space I can be both the subject and the object of experience, I express it by saying that I am both, and neither, and beyond both. (269) ** Unless you make tremendous efforts, you will not be convinced that effort will take you nowhere. The self is so self-confident that unless it is totally discouraged it will not give up. Mere verbal conviction is not enough. Hard facts alone can show the absolute nothingness of the self-image. (523) ** A quiet mind is all you need. All else will happen rightly, once your mind is quiet. As the sun on rising makes the world active, so does self-awareness affect changes in the mind. In the light of calm and steady self-awareness, inner energies wake up and work miracles without any effort on your part. (311) ** "The world is like a sheet of paper on which something is typed. The reading and the meaning will vary with the reader, but the paper is the common factor, always present, rarely perceived. When the ribbon is removed, typing leaves no trace on the paper. So is my mind - the impressions keep on coming, but no trace is left."(225) ** When you demand nothing of the world, nor of God, when you want nothing, seek nothing, expect nothing, then the Supreme State will come to you uninvited and unexpected. (195) ** "All that a guru can tell you is: 'My dear Sir, you are quite mistaken aboutyourself. You are not the person you take yourself to be.'" (443) ** "There is no such thing as a person. There are only restrictions and limitations. The sum total of these defines the person. (...) The person merely appears to be, like the space within the pot appears to have the shape and volume and smell of the pot." ** By all means attend to your duties. Action, in which you are not emotionally involved and which is beneficial and does not cause suffering will not bind you. You may be engaged in several directions and work with enormous zest, yet remain inwardly free and quiet, with a mirror like mind, which reflects all, without being affected. (50) ** "To expound and propogate concepts is simple, to drop all concepts is difficult and rare" ** "There is nothing to practise. To know yourself, be yourself. To be yourself, stop imagining yourself to be this or that. Just be. Let your true nature emerge. Don't disturb your mind with seeking" I am That PG 259 (Chetana version) ** The consciousness in you and the consciousness in me, apparently two, really one, seek unity and that is love. (70) ** In people with devotion, even with limited intellect, the intellect is not making mischief, as it is here. This is the place where the intellect gets annihilated. Consciousness and the Absolute, chapter 32 ** There was a house, and in the house there was a person; now the person is gone and the house is demolished. The sum total is, whatever experiences you have, whether for a day or for years, it is all illusion. The experiences begin with knowingness. What is the most ingrained habit you have? It is to say "I Am'. This is the root habit. Words and experiences are unworthy of you. This habit of experiencing will not go until you realize that all this domain of the five elements, are unreal, This "I Amness" is itself unreal. Consciousness and the Absolute, pg. 48 |
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M: Start with the body. From the body you get the knowledge of `I am'. In this process you become more and more subtle. When you are in a position to witness the knowledge `I am', you have reach the highest. In this way you must try to understand, and the seeds of knowledge will sprout in you. When you come to the end of material world-knowledge, at that stage you transcend the observer and the observed. That means that you are in a true state of being-ness. Thereafter, you enter the state of transcending being-ness, where the identities of the observer and observed disappear. Suppose somebody abuses you and you find out who it is. Is it the body? It is not the body. Then what could it be? Finally you come to the conclusion that it is spontaneously happening out of whatever that body is. You will not attribute it to any individual. When your individuality is dissolved, you will not see individuals anywhere, it is just a functioning in consciousness. If it clicks in you, it is very easy to understand. If it does not, it is most difficult. It is very profound and very simple, if understood right. What I am saying is not the general run of common spiritual knowledge. When you reach a state when body is transcended, mind is transcended and consciousness is also transcended; from then on all is merely happening out of consciousness, which is the outcome of the body, and there is no authority or doer-ship. When a sound is emanating out of a body, it is not that somebody is talking, it is just words emanating, just happening, not doing. If you understand the basis thoroughly, it will lead you very far, deep into spirituality. The Absolute alone prevails. There is nothing but the Absolute. The un-manifest manifested itself, that manifest state is Guru and it is universal. Who is the one who recognizes this body-mind? This `I Am-ness' which recognizes the body-mind is without name and form, it is already there. June 27, 1981 Page 108 Consciousness and the Absolute ** June 30,1981 Maharaj: All knowledge is like the son of a barren woman. Presently there are only beingness and functioning. The individuality and personality are thrown overboard. There is no personality, so there is no question of birth, life, or death. What remains is only the consciousness without name or form. The form needs a name, but when both are not there, then the consciousness remains only for so long as the body is there, but without any individuality. The body is of as much use now as it was prior to birth and after death. How do you know me? You know me only the acquisition of body form, name and form. Do you really see me as I am? I doubt it. Now the conclusion is that the unborn is enjoying the birth-principle. That principle that is born took so much time to understand this, and is it is the unborn only which prevails. It took so much time for the Self to understand the Self. We have tied around our necks so many concepts; death, this "I AM",etc. Similarly, Concepts, of good and evil are unnecessary. We have developed these concepts and are caught in them. How does one think about Self-knowledge? Do you abide in the Self or in the process do you think of something else as the Self? You are wrapped up and lost in your concepts. For instance, you have a concept about friendship. How long do you keep your friends? You keep them so long as they are useful to you. So long as a friend is of some benefit to you, that’s how long you would like to keep that friendship. Now, how can I actually derive benefit out of a friend? I, as an individual, am not there, so how can there be a question of benefit? Benefit to whom? How can there be a question of friendship at all. Anybody, who comes here can sit. I will allow him to sit for some time, but later on I will say, "You may leave," Why? Because I have no intention or purpose of having any friendship with that person. Ordinarily, there is some purpose for deriving certain benefits out of an association with another. When you meet someone in friendship, there may be some intention to serve one another. But I have no friends. Even this "I Amness" will not remain as my friend. I am not able to talk any longer—the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. Previously I used to welcome people but now I am not in a position to welcome them. They come, they sit and they go by themselves. I cannot even extend my hospitality. All my knowledge has gone into liquidation. I am unconcerned. Consciousness and the Absolute 112-114 ** Pleasure puts you to sleep and pain wakes you up. If you don't want to suffer, don't go to sleep. ** "Life ceases to be a task and becomes natural and simple, in itself an ecstasy." ** |
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