Temptation to ignore Dharma

The temptation to ignore Dharma grows from egoism and the acceptance of false values.

The wish to satisfy the lower desire is the root of adharma (unrighteousness).

This wish takes hold of you slyly, pretending to be a comrade come to save you, or like a servant come to attend on you, or like a counsellor come to warn you. Wickedness has a thousand tricks to capture your heart.

You must be ever alert against the temptation; you often remind others of Dharma when you desire to squeeze some advantage from them.

You must remember not only the rights that Dharma confers but also the duties it imposes.
Baba (thought for the day)

 

The higher self, the reflection of it, had nothing to do with Dharma that came only later on, but it had to do with self-respect and therefore, there was no difference to Dharma. It went into the right direction anyhow.

Years later I went to Baba to get knowledge about that reflection and to understand it right, because there were wrong conclusions and he helped to see it in the right light.
It was not about being on guard of false values, not be able to trust anyone anymore and to live in love anyhow, that was kind of difficult to get it together anyhow.

Desire for the Self is Freedom of Desires

The Upaniṣhad wants also to tell us what happens in the state of liberation, together with its explanation of the state of deep sleep, so that we are given two informations at the same time. In the state of liberation, all desires are fulfilled. You have no desires left afterwards because of the fact that there is only one desire there — the desire for the Self. It is actually not desire for the Self even, because there is no such thing as 'for' or 'of' there in the state of liberation, due to the universality of that experience.

It is A-kāmaṁ. It is not merely Ātmā-kāmaṁ, but actually Akāmaṁ. The desire for the Self is identical with absence of all desires. That Self which we are speaking of in the state of liberation is not an individual self, and so the desire we speak of is not desire of an individual self, but desire of the Universal Self. 'Desire' of the Universal Self is a selfcontradictory term. It cannot be there; therefore it is Akāmaṁ. It is freedom from all desires, and Śokāntaram — freedom from all sorrow.

 

: Upanishad - Swami Krishnananda

 

The higher self when reflected in the dream is very special. It feels like all we want, we ever could be able to want, therefore, it includes everything, but at that same time excluds everything.

 

The desire for the Self is identical with absence of all desires.

 

And why if there are no desires we get that troubled by other minds? Because it is part of our mind. Maybe it is because we have to work out the Karma in the background.

Psychic and Dreams

The bodies of the objects, higher and lower, seen in dream are created out of the substance of the mind alone. Even if a hard brick wall or an object of granite that you see in dream is made up of your own mind.

The mind is regarded, generally, as ethereal and non-physical. How is it then that you see 'physical' objects in dream when they are manufactured out of mind alone?

You can hit your head against a dream wall; you can break your nose in the dream if you fall on a granite stone. How is it possible if it is psychic only?

So, the distinction between matter and psyche is ultimately not sustainable on a generalisation of principle.

You do not know what really it is. In this state it, the mind here called a Devata, manufactures various forms and enjoys its objects of sense, laughs, dances, and sometimes cries. 

What we observe is the activity of the mind, but what is behind the mind, nobody can see. The director of the Drama is always invisible. You see only the dramatic performance. There is some secret operating force which seems to be behind the activities of the mind. That is never observed by anyone. You enjoy the pleasures of dream and suffer the sorrows of dream, but you cannot see what is the cause of the dream itself. The mind cannot go back behind itself or climb on its own shoulders, so to say. It can only project itself outwardly in space and time, even in dream, as it does in waking.

 

: Brihadaranyaka Upanishad

 

 

It tells me that my dreams, Baba or not, are in the essence psychic, it means in the dream the desires get fulfilled.

When my ex had a dream and Baba said to him that he lived a dream and that was his problem not Baba's, he said that he needed a Psychic and that he will give.

I never knew what was meant with psychic, because there was no level of awareness and such a disturbance level of not being able to change or look at things a real way, between him an me, it was not possible to get aware of anything, but that it got worse and worse and that we had to stop that downward direction some way or other, before someone would get killed or would be destroyed otherwise.  

This text in the Upanishad is more or less the confirmation of it.

It means in other words, he didn't get the wife as in his dream, but he got the psychic and that was also Baba's Lila, because that is what he needed.

The Heart and Stability

The heart that you are thinking of in your mind as a symbol of meditation is the outer form.

The inner essence is different. The heart is controlled by the unmanifested ether. The unmanifested ether, identifiable with Īshvara or Hiraṇyagarbha or, you may even say, Pṛakriti, the cosmic substance in which everything is woven like warp and woof, in whose bosom you can find the seeds of all later manifestations, that is the abode (Āyatanam), and it is the support.

This has to be contemplated as stability.

Its deity is Brahma, the Supreme Being Himself. The heart is to be contemplated upon as stability, because where the heart is not, stability also is not."

Where your feeling is, there your personality is fixed. This is a matter which does not require much explanation, because you know very well that where the heart is present, there your total being is present, because your heart and your being are identical, by which what we mean is that your personality is identical with your deepest feelings. Feeling is deeper than the other faculties of the psychological organ. Inasmuch as its presence is equivalent to the stability of the personality, he points out that the heart may be contemplated upon as stability. So, Brahma is the deity; Hridaye, or the heart, as we think of it, is the form; Ākāśa, or the cosmic ether is the abode; and stability is its support.

 

: Brihadaranyaka Upanishad

 

Amazing wisdom we find in the Upanishads. 

Meditation on the heart alone is like meditation on the outer form and that is different from the inner essence.

The heart has to be contemplated as stability, where stability is not, the heart is not.

The criterium of meditation is infinite stability and infinite flexibility. In stability is as well safety and in flexibility is freedom.

Now, the Reflection and topsy-turvy

"I know what it is. It is that what you see in a reflection."
Now, this is a difficult passage to understand.
What is it that you see in a reflection? You see things topsy-turvy. You do not see things properly. Suppose you see your face in a mirror, you see something wrong there. Your right ear looks like the left ear and the left ear looks like the right ear. There is a complete reversal of the original in the reflection. Now, in this Ādarśa; Puruṣha, or the reflected being, there is no reality inasmuch as there is a complete topsy-turvy perception, and therefore you cannot say it is connected, really, with the original.

This happens in our daily perceptions with the objects. We do not see things in their original capacity. When you see an object outside, you do not see it in its original form. The archetype of the object is not visible. The archetype, as the philosopher Plato would tell you, is in the heaven. It is not here in the physical world. What you see is only a shadow that is cast by the original.

 

: Brihadaranyaka Upanishad

 

I went to Baba because I couldn't understand the reflection. It was reflection which had to do with the hidden TM reality, everything was secret and therefore, we had no prove for it. Everything was just based on blieving it and not in knowing. All scientific research which lead People in the West into the wrong feeling that it was proven and scientific, was just like a make-up reality deceiving the mind, because it had always to do with the fact that the absolute reality was real and not the relative, but it never went into the matter of background and reflection of truth at all. For that the source had to be known and that source is in the higher self.

The Lord knows Best

Forgetting the primary goal of life, man wastes his time. Time is precious.

Death is dangling its sword over every head. Our life span is fast diminishing, like water leaking through a broken pot or a melting block of ice.

Death overtakes man even before he realizes his mission in life. 

When we want to go to a cinema, or for an evening walk, we get ready by putting on our shoes. When we want to visit a nearby town, we pack our clothes in a bag. But what preparations do you make for the ultimate journey, the voyage of death?

All are beggars at the gate of God.

The hero is he who does not beg or cringe or flatter or fawn. He knows that the Lord knows best.

Baba 

What is the primary goal of life? 

I would say it is self-realization and he doesn't tell it here, he just tells us to not waste time. 

If time is that precious and we don't know the primary goal of life, what happens if we think we know and we still don't know? 

We waste not only life, but we get stuck and are on the wrong path. 

To know that death is dangling its sword over our head and we don't know exactly how to take care of that primary goal of life, that doesn't feel too good, doesn't it? How to understand it right?

The Secret of Peace

While studying other things, you should learn the secret of shanti (peace) also. 

This opportunity should not be missed, for that is the wisdom which will save you. For without Peace, life is a nightmare. 

The present system of education aims at making you breadwinners and citizens, but it does not give you the secret of a happy life; namely discrimination between the unreal and the real, which is the genuine training you need. 

The cultivation of viveka (discrimination) is the chief aim of education; the promotion of virtuous habits and the strengthening of Dharma (righteousness) - these are to be attended to; not the acquisition of polish or gentlemanliness, or collection of general information and the practice of common skills.

Baba (thought for the day)

 

Shanti (peace) in every day life seems to me like a dream. I tried to realize that dream when I met someone in the ashram and I thought he would have the same ideal. That seemed the opportunity we should not miss in being devotees, I thought, but I guess, it was wrong. It was not only not right, he took advantage of it. 

Meditation and the Mirror of the Self

 

Why Meditation? Japam is the whispered repetition of the mantra with a japa mala and Dhyanam is the mental repetition, we don't even move the tongue. We began first with japam and later with dhyanam. I preferred mental repetition because it was a deeper meditation. Meditation is about self-realization and the self is mirrored in a relationship, it cannot be only technique. We tend to forget in the West that inner divinity and the higher self are not different, it is the same. If we don't have a relationship with the divine, we will also have no relationship to the higher self and if that is lost, we cannot possibly get aware of whom we are and we we got into professional role plays like the meditation teacher. As I was always looking for the higher self and we don't know the difference from a right and a not right path, we just went into meditation.

Know the Truth

There is no use arguing and quarrelling amongst you.

Examine, experience and then you will know the truth. Be silent when you are still undecided or engaged in evaluating. Do not proclaim before you are convinced.

Of course, you must discard all evil in you before you can attempt to evaluate the mystery.

When faith dawns, it is very important to fence it with discipline and self-control. Just as the tender sapling is guarded with a fence to protect against the goats and cattle; you too should stay away from the motley crowd of cynics and unbelievers.

When your faith grows into a big tree, those very cattle which wanted to eat the young plant now lay and rest in the shade of the tree which has spread with lots of branches and leaves.

Baba (thought for the day)

 

Do you know what he is talking about?

 

Examine, experience and then you will know truth.

 

Truth seen inside and what we think is true outside are two different things, but in reality there is only one truth, the outer is just appearance and therefore, it is not true.

What looks outside as evil and what it looks like inside, that is not the same and therefore, I guess we have to evaluate the mystery.

But someone who is not looking for truth has no idea about what Baba is talking about here.

Creeping at Tortoise Pace

Life is short, time is fleeting: your spiritual practice (sadhana) is creeping at tortoise pace.

When will you decide to proceed a little faster? Your sadhana is like the answers you write at the examination. If you get only five or six marks, the examiner will strike out even that, saying, "What is the use of these few marks: it will take this student neither here nor there."

If you get somewhere near the passing marks, then Grace will give you just a little more so that you may pass, provided you have been a diligent and well-behaved student. Engage yourselves in good deeds, good company and good thoughts. Fix your attention on the goal.

Baba (thought for the day)

 

The root chakra is the tortoise and it is about pace and it seems saftety and home. I guess Baba asks us here to go a bit faster or to progress to the next chakra level.

I had a picture of my mother who died in my dream not long ago, today is her birthday. She was very, very old in that dream and it was only body level, kind of funny, it lead to laughing in the dream.

On that spiritual path our life becomes a reflection of reality, life is the best teacher. Therefore, if something goes wrong, it seems to reflect even years later bringing up that reality that life is the best teacher.

That is why I tried to get out of it, but there is no way I guess we get out, there is only a way to live in it and to make the best out of it.

When it is about sadhana Baba said every mantra is okay, if Sadhana is with a mantra. If we think Soham (I am that), we get aware that there is only one 'I' and that is an universal principle, but also every 'body' has an 'I', and we are identified with it.

On this path we get aware that we are not the body, but that universal 'I'. It is pure intelligence.

Blurred through Exhaustion

Pay attention to your physical health. Satisfy the demands of Nature. Otherwise your head would reel and your eyes might get blurred through exhaustion. The car must be given the fuel it needs, is it not?

Maintain your body well as an instrument for a higher purpose. How can the thoughts of the Lord be stabilized in a weak frame? A road roller is fed with oil, coal and other types of fuel. But why is it fed and well-maintained? In order to lay and mend the road, is it not?

So too be careful not to forget the purpose of this body, even as you tend to it. Never forget that you have been gifted this body, so you might realize the Lord and end the cycle of birth and death.

Baba (thought for the day)

 

Actually, my eyes feel quite often blurred, but sometimes it just needs some more time to get there.

I went always in direction of the higher self and there was a time it was projected, because I thought they had the same purpose and they looked like 'that'.

The Skill of Balancing vs. Perpetuum Mobile

When you learn to ride a bicycle, you do not get the skill of balancing immediately. You push the cycle along to a safe and open ground, hop and skip, leaning now and then on one side and another, and make many an attempt to get the balance. Once you get the skill, you never even think or worry about balancing. You automatically make the necessary adjustments. You can now ride through narrow streets and lanes, and even through crowded alleys – you no longer need the large, safe, open ground!

So too, practice alone will equip you with deep concentration, that will sustain you even in your most difficult situation. Hence, do not get discouraged that you are not able to concentrate on prayer or meditation for long. It is just the start!

Baba (thought for the day)

 

If we need answers, for whatever reason, we don't question if we like it.

The question is how to look at it and the joy in it is to know it. It is that kind of skill and inside balancing the mind into a state of no question.

TM is a perpetuum mobile based on illusion. The source gets lost by just mechanical repetition of the mantra and by meditating they think it solves all problems but it is just making the source get lost and because they give up searching and they cannot find it, everything secret, they go on meditating and cutting of the source.

It is based on deception, a perpetuum mobile, either no problems or all problems, whatever.

A never ending Story

Repetition of God's Name (japam) and meditation (dhyana) are the means by which you can accelerate the concretisation of Divine Grace, in the Name and Form you yearn for. The Lord has to and will assume the Form you chose, the Name you fancy and the way you want Him to be. Therefore do not change the Name and Form you adore mid-way; but select and stick to the One that pleases you most, whatever the difficulty you encounter or however long it takes! All agitations must cease one day, is it not? The dhyana of the Form and the japam of the Name - that is the only means for this task.

Baba (thought for the day)

If we are focused on the higher self, it can have any name and any form. I began with TM to get into regular meditation and had no idea in what I went into.  

After I began with TM to get inside, we meditated a lot and liked it.
And in the mean time I even like to remember again that time again and it is not anymore connected with people involved, but only with the self-experience. It had been really something...

We used that mantra for already lots of time and it was not possible to  change it. The mantra is in connection with the higher self, therefore, we should not change mantras, but sometimes I just tried Soham and meditated with it.
Do you know what?
What I write down here is the reflection of no problem of TM. I try here to explain what happened and it works, today I am able to explain it... , but it still sounds as it does, like a never ending problem, a never ending story.
It is the reflection of no-problem, just meditate. Even today I get tired in reading and even more so writing about it ..., because it never ends.
Instead of no problem it is a never ending problem.

The right Compass and the Track

The mariner uses his compass to guide him aright amidst the dark storm clouds and raging waves.

When a person is overwhelmed by the dark clouds of despair and the raging confusion of irrepressible desires, he too, has a compass which will point to him the direction he has to take.

That compass is a society that is dedicated to the propagation of spiritual discipline.

So long as man is attracted by outer nature, he cannot escape the blows of joy and grief, of profit and loss, of happiness and misery. But, if he is attracted by the Glory of God within him as well as within Nature, he can be above and beyond these dualities and in perfect peace.

Baba (thought for the day)
 

After an experience of self-realization during writing a diary it felt like it would be going always in that direction. That was the compass, but one day it was gone. No way it seemed to be possible to be recalled or remembered. 
It kind of resembled the dark clouds and raging waves, no answer and no indication where to go, just that compass, a feeling of self-realization, but the source of it unknown. When we began to look for it it felt like following a track. 

About everything we tried and with always the same response, 'not that'. It was kind of a selection, afterwards we knew, no use, it will not work. There was no use to search for it and I decided to wait and watch.

Love transcends the ego

If there is a boil on the body, we put some ointment on it and cover it with a bandage until the whole wound heals. If you do not apply the ointment and tie a bandage around this boil, it is likely to become septic and can cause greater harm later on. Now and then we will have to clean it with water, apply the ointment again and put on a new bandage.

In the same way, in our life, there is this boil which has come up in our body in the form of 'I, I, I..'. If you want to really cure this boil, you will have to wash it every day with the waters of love, apply the ointment of faith on it and tie the bandage of humility around it.

The bandage of humility, the ointment of faith, and the waters of love will cure the disease that has erupted with this boil of 'I.'

Baba (thought for the day)

 

How to get rid of body consciousness?

During the time as meditation teacher when people came into the door we asked them to sit down and meditate and we didn't allow them to talk or socialize. If we wouldn't have done that, there were some they just wanted to talk and empty their mind and that would have destroyed the energy. 

All those problems in our mind come up in the body with the I, it is based on body identification and if we want to cure it, we wash it with the waters of love, because pure love transcends the ego.

Faith gives us the strength to trust into a higher level of energy which will solve all problems.   

And humility is the trust that he will take care of it.

It is the same, there is only one difference and it was in the source. 

If we know the source, we can understand it and if we don't know the source, we think we do understand it, but we cannot understand it.

The boil Baba talks here about it is body consciousness and on the level of the 'I am that', the universal 'I' it is a principle.

If we just meditate and are not aware of divinity and the universal 'I' we can get lost in it and the source gets lost. If the source is kept secret it is quite the same, it cannot be understood.

I liked the example of churning the milk in the process of identifying the butter. 

To identify the butter is getting aware of the source and realizing the 'I am that'.

The Screen, the Watcher and the Lesson

Consider the example of a cinema; on the screen we see rivers in flood, engulfing all the surrounding land.

Even though the scene is filled with flood waters the screen does not get wet by even a drop of water.

At another time, on the same screen we see volcanoes erupting with flame, but the screen is not burnt. The screen which provides the basis for all these pictures is not affected by any of them.

Likewise in the life of man, good or bad, joy or sorrow, birth or death, will be coming and going, but they do not affect the Soul (Atma). In the cinema of life, the screen is the Soul (Atma). It is Shiva, it is Shankara, it is Divinity.

When one understands this principle, one will be able to understand, enjoy and find fulfilment in life.

Baba (thought for the day)

 

Look at the pictures, the movie of our life and get aware that it is just a passing by scene. But how do we get able to do that if we are involved in the passing scenes?  

When I went to TM and began to meditate regularly it was a great feeling because we meditated a lot. By that meditation the insight became more clear. It was already there before, but not that clear.

There was a beautiful melody out of the heart of all hearts and it was just love and it was projected into another TM teacher, who was the course leader. By that projection I thought it was the answer to my problems and that TM was the right path. But it was projection and later I realized, I didn't learn anything about projection.

Stuck with wrong Beliefs

The world is building itself upon the sandy foundation of the sensory world.

Like the monkey which could not pull its hand out of the narrow necked pot, because it first held in its grasp a handful of groundnuts which the pot contained, people are suffering today.

They are unwilling to release their hold on the handful of pleasurable things they have grasped from the world. When people do not place faith in the Self, but pursue their senses alone, the danger signal is up!

People are stuck with the wrong belief that the accumulation of material possessions will endow them with joy and peace. Divine Love alone can give you everlasting joy. Divine Love alone will remove anger, envy and hatred.

Baba (thought for the day)

 

That is why I follow his inner Lila, hoping that the hand will not get stuck in the narrow necked pot, we have to be able of letting go the groundnuts the pot is containing.

We have to get detached to be able to let go. To whatever we are holding on it will be a reason that the hand cannot get out of the pot.

The inner Voice

You need not even read the Gita or the Upanishads.

You will hear a Gita specially designed for you if you call upon the Lord in your own heart. He is there, installed as your own Charioteer. Ask Him and He will answer.

Have the Form of the Lord before you when you sit quietly in a place for meditation and have His Name - that is, any Name when you do japam (repetition of the divine Name).

If you do japam, without a Form before you, who is to give the answer? You cannot be talking all the time to yourself. The Form of the Lord you are calling will hear and respond to you. All agitations must cease one day, is it not? Meditation of the Form of the Lord and repetition of His Name are the only means for your mental agitations to cease.

Baba (thought for the day)

 

We should just be aware of what kind that inner Gita will be, we don't read it in letters, but in inner pictures and we have to understand it.

Therefore, it is best to write it down to be able to get a glimps of it. Afterwards we can see the reflection coming back. That is actually what happens here in my blog, when I write down stories and dreams and insights it looks all differently than it had been before and that is my inner Gita. 

The inner Gita is our own story and our own Charioteer is the inner master and not what we would like it to be, but what it really is. Yes, he definitly will answer inside, he really does.

And it is a great inspiration.

How my Divine Life began ...

It is the Divine that inspires, activates, leads and fulfils the life of every being, however simple or complex it may be! From the atom to the Universe, every single being is flowing fast to merge in the sea of bliss.

Never forget that every one of you is Sath-Chith-Ananda Swarupa (Embodiments of Existence-Consciousness-Bliss) – only you are unaware of it and imagine yourself to be bound to this form and its limitations!

This is the myth that should be exploded, so that your Divine Life may begin. Leading a Divine Life consists of practising Truth, Love and Non-injury (Sathya, Prema and Ahimsa).

Since all are parts of the same Divine Self, all should be loved as oneself, without fear and falsehood. When all are one, why should we injure another one, who is part of the same Divine Being?

Baba (thought for the day)

 

I had been with TM. I came back from Paris and our national leader who was in the same age had lost his lady on a mother divine course. He was not really the type of man I liked, but after the teacher's training he was on the phone and said that the Maharishi asked me to look for a hotel for him.

I thought he wanted to keep me occupied, as I didn't know the background of his private life. I thought it was a good way to learn more about TM, to deepen the experience. As it seems that guy noticed I came from Paris, didn't know the movement. He was one of those rare persons who had a direct relationship with the Maharishi. In that sense it was attractive and interesting.