You have joined the study class at Dharmakshetra, and are engaged in poring over all types of books and gathering information and instruction. But, what have you gained? Knowledge about what this author says or that sage teaches is not what your study circle must aim to acquire. Not information, but transformation; not instruction, but construction should be the aim. Theoretical knowledge is a burden, unless it is practised, when it can be lightened into wisdom, and assimilated into daily, life. Knowledge that does not give harmony and wholeness to the process of living is not worth acquiring. Every activity must be rendered valid and worthwhile by its contribution to the discovery of Truth, both of the Self and of Nature. Of what use is it to know everything about nature, if you do not know anything of the Self? Nature is only a projection of the Self, and so, unless the Self is known, knowledge of nature is either distorted or deceptive. The Self is Atma, of which the entire Creation is composed, so knowledge of the Self alone can quench the thirst of man.
How do we practice?
We just got aware of the importance of the job we have to do. If we think it over and write our thoughts down there is a reflection going on in the mind. If the writer is a job and facilitating it in that way, in a study circle is more efficient, because we sit together and the participator has the job to participate. Why we call it a job, because there is a sense of duty involved, we always try to do a good job and our best and it is not a matter of arguing, but a matter of decision. We take a job and do it, that is the way we can make it experience and learn from it.
He is telling us here that theoretical wisdom is a burden. And how do we make it practical knowledge? In practicing and in talking about it. We are practitioners and we have to put it into practice that is the main thing, otherwise, it remains theoretical wisdom and a burden.
That is why we have study circles, it make it possible for everybody to participate and we tell our point of view and go around in the circle, all have to be able to share the thoughts, but it helps a lot if we are aware what we are doing. The facilitator is also a job that makes it possible for the participator, also a job and get in that sense aware of the value of duty and by participating we tell what we think and feel and together we get to the right conclusion and afterwards it is no more theoretical wisdom, it becomes practical experience - that is what we want, that is the main thing, it has to become experience.
We get the experience be writing about it in a blog in that sense it is like digesting it in thinking it over and doing it again and again it turns into experience, it is no more theoretical wisdom, but it is practical knowledge. We get aware of the observer, we get aware of subtle differences in our daily life and we also try to find a way to integrate it in our understanding and to find a way of seeing it that it does make sense really. It is not group therapy work and Swami tells it clearly, we have to use the teaching and I mentioned it in the last study circle and the question is, what is the difference? It was not just present and if we don't think it over and see both ways and what is the difference, it is all in the air only. We have to think it over to know the difference and to get a feeling about that difference. If we talk about it, we find words, we tell his words in our own experiences in our own life, we get the feeling for it and it will not be anymore a burden.
Not information, but transformation; not instruction, but construction should be the aim. Theoretical knowledge is a burden, unless it is practised, when it can be lightened into wisdom, and assimilated into daily, life. Knowledge that does not give harmony and wholeness to the process of living is not worth acquiring. Every activity must be rendered valid and worthwhile by its contribution to the discovery of Truth, both of the Self and of Nature.
It has to be practiced. It is a good way to see it as a job, that makes us do it and be ready for the experience of it, be open. We often hear we have to be open and then we wonder, what does he actually mean with being open. If we see it as a job, we are open for the experience, we are able to take it as it comes and to go on and to not give up with the first problem, because we see it as job and we don't take it too personal. If we see it as a job, we do our duty and that is the best we can. A job we just have to do, we don't argue about it. That is therefore a way of peace, everybody does his job, one is the listener, also he has a job to do, but in the study circle we are all participators and that is the way wisdom is transformed and it is not just information, but transformation.
We all share it and make it like that our own experience and in the end we don't feel only comfortable with it, but it is harmonizing and elevating and great. If people are afraid they don’t talk and don’t share, but if they know we share to make it practical experience they are motivated to do it and we will open up and if they know it is their job, they will go for it in a different way, because we have to make it experience. Why do we write about it if not to make it experience?
But does the listener or reader feel it as the writer does when he writes it down? Is it possible to share the experience, to feel it or is it just theoretical knowledge and therefore, it is actually a burden. Does it help to read it out loud and to speak and to listen to our own voice and does it then get assimilated and transformed into practical wisdom? The sharing is very important and in our Darshans it was always sharing and he is part of it. If we share and we listen to others thoughts, it is a different matter than when we just do it in our own mind. But nevertheless we have to think it over and we have to share it. But the thing is we share his thoughts and the truth and the truth is always threefold, it is insight and right knowledge and it needs to be confirmed and that is probably also why we should not be surprised if we feel that it is also a burden. I often still feel now like a burden when I have to think it over and only after a while by thinking it over it actually changes and it gets transformed in something like joy, good feeling or insights. Mostly insights, often when I wrote it down, I got afterwards an insight about it and that again leads to think it over and in another thought for the day, it is never too much text, we just do it and flow with it and by that we get more insights. Blogging is in that way a good means to think it over, to reflect on it, but to really get that experience of his presence and that it feels like a Darshan, it seems nothing is like sharing it in a study circle with others, but only if we have a facilitator which makes it a good experience. If we are too shy to talk anyhow, being a reader as our job feels more distant and okay, we don't have to deal with the feelings of others and we don't have to bother about the mind level with the argumentation and troubles which can result out of it.
He is telling us that if knowledge is not giving harmony and wholeness is not worth acquiring, if we don't do it right and we don't see it as job, but just a sharing experience and we don't know why we do it actually, I have met some such situations where it was more a headache than anything else and I didn't wanted to make that experience anymore. But if we really go into depth in that teaching it is actually full of harmony and wholeness and therefore, it is worth acquiring it, so we should talk about it as much as we can, speak it out to make it our own, our experience, growing in it, feeling it, digesting and assimilating it that it is part of our life. It is a great experience and we cannot imagine how great if we share the wisdom with the other in the purpose to make it experience.
Only by doing we understand the meaning of that sentence and that is how it becomes self-experience and it is no more theoretical wisdom and a burden, but it is fulfilling and harmony and great, we can get enthusiastic and we feel the joy in it.
Every activity must be rendered valid and worthwhile by its contribution to the discovery of Truth, both of the Self and of Nature.
The divine is on that level our friend, but as he explained there are nine types of devotion and we get aware of it in practicing in the reflection we get aware of it.
Not information, but transformation; not instruction, but construction should be the aim. Theoretical knowledge is a burden, unless it is practised, when it can be lightened into wisdom, and assimilated into daily, life.
That is just what we talk about, not information, but transformation and what is the difference? If we just read it, it can also be theoretical wisdom and we think we understand it, but we don’t know, there is no mirror if we don't talk about it. Usually I think we get aware of the burden and we also get tired on the spot and he tells us why, he is telling it, we get aware of it by him telling us, why we go into distance, because we feel the burden. Why is it a burden?
Wisdom is about truth and truth is not just information, it is threefold, it needs insight, right knowledge and confirmation to be considered true, like with science, it needs to be proved that we consider it true.
We approach it and think it should be easy, it should be fulfilling and it should he harmonious, so the burden cannot be the right result and we avoid it, we want to feel the harmony and not the burden, but to get the harmony is actually in participating, in talking about it, in sharing, in making it experience that creates the harmony and such a precious experience we will be amazed about it as it feels totally right.
Not information, but transformation, not instruction, but construction should be the aim. And if we have a meeting and we only listen to some speakers all day long it is just information, listening to others and we are not participating, but just listening and at the worst we get home bored and with headache and even more so, because we know nothing of it will be put into practice. There are high expectations, but no way to put it into practice, critics start and again headache, tensions instead of relaxation.
Never it should be only based on information, but always on transformation otherwise, we don't put in practice what he is telling us. What is missing is the wisdom in the name of wisdom we don't apply it, kind of funny isn't it?
Not information, but transformation; not instruction, but construction should be the aim. Theoretical knowledge is a burden, unless it is practised, when it can be lightened into wisdom, and assimilated into daily, life.
If we listen to his words, we have to share it and get the experience of it, only information doesn't serve, only transformation does make a difference and we have to let all participate. It is like with mediation, the information about it doesn't make us a meditator, only when we do it we meditate. It we take a strawberry and describe the taste of it, we can write a page about it, but only the experience of it will make us know how it tastes. That is the same with the highest wisdom, we have to talk about it, we have to assimilated it to make it part of our own life. If we see it in our own life it is for that reason, to make it part of our own life, to feel it, to experience it, to absorb it.
It is joy to realize that we make out of theoretical wisdom experience, because we all have to do the same thing, it is the same purpose if we talk about it, we have to get the feeling for it, we have to do it. We transform it together into experience, it is a different way of sharing and if it is really right we feel the level of Darshan, it is harmonizing and a moment of truth and we feel his presence.
This is the power of the highest wisdom, the experience of the highest truth, he made us participate in it, he gave us the experience of it. If we don't feel it yet as joyful as it should be, if we don’t listen really and we just feel the burden, we usually try to find the answer. We have to find the right knowledge and after all it has to be confirmed and if we are not on the right level or we dig for the answer on the wrong place, it can take a long time to get some answers after all.
We share our thoughts to think it over and the reader thinks it over with us. We get to a certain insight and the following step is also him, whatever that is, we are open for the unknown and we have to make it experience, the journey is from theory to practice. We read about it and listen and it is still theoretical knowledge and as we feel the burden we may not feel like doing it actually and then we begin and we see it in our own life and on a certain point the inner feeling has changed and it is not more the feeling of burden, but it has transformed into something else, we understand it, we feel it, it has a meaning and the burden is gone and that is the value of practicing it.
We listened to a great guest speaker and it was interesting and fascinating, he told us about his experiences with Baba and we sensed the truth in it, but he was a speaker, he didn’t create for us the job of the participator, we were just listeners, but I guess that can also be a job. Whatever serves to transform theoretical wisdom into practical knowledge, we should do it, because as theoretical wisdom it is only a burden and we want to get rid of the burden really. If we make it experience and we feel his presence in it we know only how great it really is if we have the practice and the experience of it, as long as it is only theory it is a burden and only in practice we get the benefit and we even get aware how it gets transformed from burden to joy and harmony and insights and a great inner feeling of joy.
It has to be practiced and together with others we share it. If we would always be able to listen to him, it would be great, but we are not. Listening to him can also feel like a burden as we have to assimilate it and it starts with theoretical wisdom, but it gets easier and it is really great when we notice the transformation.
It is not intellectual, it is just knowhow, but his knowhow, not our own, he tells us how and we do it in sharing, in listening and that knowhow is what transforms us from the inside, the others participate or listen or feel it with us and we get together to the right conclusion. The sharing is that great, a great experience, the ideal gets purified and there is the feeling of harmony and that is the experience we had in Darshan, it is the power of the highest wisdom, of the ‘I am that’. If we listen and practice together, the participants also have a job to do.
If we do it, we go for it, we find the experience of the Darshan and the right wisdom, the right knowledge. It can turn into an experience of ‘pure love’ if all three things we need for pure love are there.
We have to understand peace, that is the job, duty to do a good job ..., we have to accept truth, we talk about the wisdom to make it our own, to feel it, to get the experience of it, only if we practice it can be transformed from theoretical to practical wisdom and that is also already right action, we make possible that it becomes real and alive ... If we have three things, truth, peace, right action, we can get to the experience of pure love and realize that everything is in our own self really.
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