Development of Wisdom and inner Inquiry

But, there is a practice even superior to meditation.
The ultimate spiritual practice is the development of wisdom.
Wisdom emerges from inner inquiry. It is the spiritual practice of looking deep into the essential nature of everything. If you faithfully pursue this inquiry, you will gradually reach the supreme state of peace and bliss.
This is the unique goal of human life, a goal which all mankind will one day achieve.

Inner Inquiry - the Path of Wisdom
Sai Baba Gita pfd

I guess that is where this leads, I just don't understand what it has to do with a job, but maybe there is nothing to understand and it just has to do with feeling and worries in the mind we have to get aware of it and it is just part of that inner inquiry.

The Three Stages on the Wisdom Path

To reach the state of abiding inner peace, you begin by inquiring into the very heart of everything. This is the process of inner inquiry, the first stage on the wisdom path. Then you must make use of the deep insights you have gained by applying the spiritual teachings to every detail of your daily life. This is the second stage.  

If you continue with this practice unfailingly, then, in time, you will reach the goal of God-realization and enjoy unending bliss. This is the third and final stage on the wisdom path. (Baba Gita)

Equanimity and Joy

True joy comes from equanimity.
Do not be carried away by or attach any importance to worldly things. Use your time and effort to control the vagaries of the mind and develop mental steadiness. Equal-mindedness; means that you remain unaffected by victory or defeat, by profit or loss, by joy or sorrow.

Accept whatever happens, whatever comes your way, as the gift of God, to be enjoyed with great satisfaction, regarding it as a gift of love given to you for your own good. When your heart is not swayed by worldly things, when you treat all people and all things with equal-mindedness, then you will experience true joy.
Then your heart will be filled with feelings of love and satisfaction, and you will know the true joy of devotion.

Baba Gita

 

It feels kind of amazing, it is always about joy. Without joy there is no love. 

Tapas, coordination of Thought, Word and Deed

Your heart is the ceremonial altar; your body is the fire place; your hair is the holy grass, darbha; wishes are the fuel-sticks with which the fire is fed; desire is the ghee that is poured into the fire to make it burst into flame; anger is the sacrificial animal; the fire is the tapas you accomplish. People sometimes interpret tapas as ascetic practices like standing on one leg, and so on. No, tapas is not physical contortion. It is the complete and correct coordination of thought, word and deed.
When all words emanating from you are sweet, your breath becomes Rig Veda. When you restrict what you listen to and prefer only sweet speech, all that you hear becomes Saama gaana.
When you do only sweet deeds, all that you do is Yajur homa. Thus, you will be performing every day the Vedhapurusha Yajna, the yajna which propitiates the Supreme Vedic Being.
Baba (thought for the day)

To integrate holiness in our daily life is a skill. I don’t feel like skilled at all. It began when I was twenty being focused on the higher self and my life is conditioned by it. It means whatever I can do to get more freedom I have to do, because it feels heavy.

Water and Soap to Clean the Heart

Cleanse the heart with the water of love and the detergents of prayer and contrition, so that the stains of desire will be removed. Then God will pour His Grace into it. If you yearn for God, you should give up attachment to the external world and to the body (Loka bhranthi and Deha bhranthi). There is no use trying to put one foot in one boat and another in a different boat.

You may have been a spiritual aspirant for 20 or 25 years, but if you worry more about physical needs and comforts than meditation and spiritual progress, then the years of practice is of no value, as there has been no progress. The waving of the camphor flame (aarti) at the end of the prayer or bhajan session is to remind you that your sensual cravings must be burnt away without leaving any trace behind. You must offer yourself completely to God, to be merged in His Glory.

Baba (thought for the day)

If we see the heart as vessel, we have to take care that it is clean and we put in the water love and in the detergent prayers to remove the stains of desire, then God will pour his Grace into it.

That means we have to clean the heart.

Face the Devil, get aware of the Lesson

The first step in spiritual life is to have compassion.
A person who is kind and loving never needs to go searching for God.
God rushes toward any heart that beats with compassion-it is God's favorite place.
Amma (Mata Amritanandamayi Devi)

 

If we make one step towards God, he rushes towards us. One step and he makes a thousand towards us, but we have to make the first step.  

But if we take the mind for God, we don't make that step and he will not rush towards us and if we live in arrangements with the mind and just think it is love, but it is not, how can that work out?
It is not compassion and not love. If we keep bad habits and do not meditate to establish better habits, he will not rush towards us too.
There is an effort needed, we have to make the first step to know the difference between God and mind and if we don’t do it, we stay deluded in a mind state and it can go on forever.
We think it is God, but it is only the mind. And when it is about fame, we want to convince the other about ego values and are not open to learn.

If it is ego arrangement going on thinking he will give, he will not give, because the step we make is not in direction of God, but in direction of the ego and we don’t get aware of the mistake in our thoughts, we are stupid.

Are You Enlightened?

Man is endowed with the special instrument of discrimination, of judgment, of analysis and synthesis, which among all animals, he alone possesses.

He has to develop this and utilize it to the best purpose. Through this instrument, he can realize the Immanent Divinity.

Upanishad Vahini

It is not difficult, it is easy. If we are the same, isn’t it easy? What do we need to know about being the same?

The insight is not easy. Why not? Because is it not direct seeing on the level of our eyes and sense perception, it is insight in consciousness. Time, effort, work are needed to get to the result of understanding it, meditation, waiting, observing, discrimination.

And can we even understand it?

What is behind that incredible knowledge?

Get rid of Bonds and Karma by Discrimination and Detachment

While entangled in the Five Elements, man is attracted, distracted or disappointed by them; all this causes distress.
Wealth, possessions - vehicles, buildings - all these are transmutations of the elements.
Man craves for them; when he loses them or fails to get them, he spurns them.

Upanishad Vahini

Transmutation of elements of our mind mirrored in our possessions and that is in the Upanishads. With my parent's house I decided to go for the opposite, but I was scared of it. 

Upanishads and Relationship

The Atma is ever pure, ever free from attachment, for there is no second to get attached to.

The Mundakopanishad (III-i) mantra says: Two birds, ever together, with significant and subtle wings, are perched on a tree. (The tree is the body and the twin birds are Jivatma and Paramatma). One bird is engaged in tasting the fruits, (The Jivatma experiences joy and grief from the deeds it engages itself in). The other just watches. (The Paramatma is subtler than the subtlest and is just a Witness). (Baba)

Upanishad Vahini

What is the relationship between those two birds, the Paramatma and the Jivatma, the experiencer and the experience?

The Experiencer has to be Properly Attuned

What is this experienced world?

It is the world of material objects, emotions and thoughts. The scientists, economists and politicians are continuously striving to improve the scheme of things in the external world so that the experienced becomes better and better.

But this is only fifty per cent of the whole situation. We must also take care of the other side, the experiencer.

Even if the total scheme of things in the external world could be made ideal, but the experiencer is not properly attuned, his life will be miserable.

Thus the yogic seers of yore found that unless the experiencer is evolved and properly developed, no happiness can be assured in this world. So they started concentrating on this particular work of evolving and developing the experiencer.

Now who is this experiencer? It is one's own self, the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual components which together make up the total personality of each human being.

Yogamag

That is the answer I was looking for in the past years. It is about the relationship between the experiencer and the experience.

The right Answer and the holy Tradition of India

This is an ancient observation true even today – that most people spend their childhood in pranks and play, their youth in sports, pleasure and pastime, middle age in plans and schemes to pile up a fortune, and old age in hospitals trying to bolster failing health through failing wealth. Earning and spending, one fills their time with work and worry.

People are busy with a number of attempts to earn happiness, but success is little and short-lived.

The only panacea for all ills, the effort that will result in total victory is the control of the mind, which is the master of the senses.

Every sense organ is an outlet for energy that binds one to the objective world. The senses are induced by the mind to move out and attach themselves to objects.

You must make the mind submit to wisdom, which discriminates between right and wrong. Then the mind, instead of harming, will help you.

Baba (thought for the day)

I was with Sai Baba in the mountains and meditated after Darshan. He came back and I didn’t notice it. When I opened the eyes I was surprised to see him standing just in front of us, but there was also a group of the boy all dressed the same way and above all was the thought of ‘I am that’. What does that mean?

I somehow was in meditation, as you know well, we just take the mantra and go back to it when thoughts come. It was not a place to think or to reflect. I didn’t think, I meditated and thought it was all right and therefore, it took time to realize that it was about identification and that it was Darshan, sight of truth and he was identified with everything.

It was difficult to understand, because it didn’t make sense to me that we could be identified with everything, even if he said always that he is everything. I was still used to see everything separate.

Lost in a Jungle where real Values have no Meaning

Man is lost and is wandering in a jungle where real values have no meaning.
Real values can have meaning to man only when he steps on to the spiritual path, a path where negative emotions have no use.
Baba

We know why negative emotions have no use, because they come out of the identification of that jungle where real values have no meaning.

But as we are lost in that jungle, conclusion, there can only be negative emotions and we have to find others to get out of it.

It means it has to be the spiritual path, because everything else is negative and a jungle.

It is a desperate wandering in the jungle, it is a scream to find the way out of it and it creates fear to realize that we are lost.

Being a Princess - as opposed to ...

Earning wealth is one of the legitimate objectives of human endeavour, without a doubt. It is one of the four objectives (purusharthaas) of every human life, the four being - righteousness, earning wealth, desire and liberation. The order they are mentioned in, has a purpose too. Righteousness has to direct and control the process of earning wealth and liberation has to be the regulating factor for one’s desires.

All wealth accruing through unrighteous means is to be treated with contempt as unworthy.

All desires that do not subserve the one supreme need for liberation are to be given up as beneath one’s dignity. So the spiritual basis of righteousness and liberation must be the root of both the pursuit of wealth and fulfillment of other desires.

Baba (thought for the day)

Somehow it seems the question is how to be able to live that good conduct without ‘arguing’, but anyhow asking the questions we have to ask and follow the inner master.
Your good conduct is your true wealth. - Baba
I guess the answer is, we have to realize it. Righteousness is the right way of thought and understanding to be able to live in peace and to help others to reach that goal too.
Liberation directs our senses and one’s desire that is serves everybody and not only the ego.

All desires that do not subserve the one supreme need for liberation are to be given up as beneath one’s dignity. So the spiritual basis of righteousness and liberation must be the root of both the pursuit of wealth and fulfillment of other desires.

Back to the Beginning

Earning wealth is one of the legitimate objectives of human endeavour, without a doubt. It is one of the four objectives (purusharthaas) of every human life, the four being - righteousness, earning wealth, desire and liberation.
The order they are mentioned in, has a purpose too. Righteousness has to direct and control the process of earning wealth and liberation has to be the regulating factor for one’s desires.

All wealth accruing through unrighteous means is to be treated with contempt as unworthy.

All desires that do not subserve the one supreme need for liberation are to be given up as beneath one’s dignity. So the spiritual basis of righteousness and liberation must be the root of both the pursuit of wealth and fulfillment of other desires.

Baba (thought for the day)

If Soham meditation turns into Hamsa, the experience is different even if the outcome seems the same. With Soham we inhale So and exhale Ham, Soham is first light and we exhale darkness, or inhale cool and exhale warm air.

The Hamsa is the swan and it feels like plunging into the depth of water with its long goose neck and finding there the light and discrimination. Dark is first and therefore, Ham and only after Sa, light and discrimination, and that seems kind of natural.

Vitamin G to cure Mind and Body

 Illness is caused more by malnutrition of the mind than of the body. As doctors speak of vitamin deficiency, I will present the root-cause in similar lines as ‘Deficiency of Vitamin G’.

To cure this, I will recommend the repetition of any Name of God, along with contemplation of His Glory and Grace of God. That is the medicine to overcome the Vitamin G deficiency.

Regulated life and habits are two-thirds of the treatment while medicine contributes to one-third. Every one of you must reveal the qualities of love, humility, detachment and contentment through all your actions. When your mind is unattached to the ups and downs of life, but is able to maintain equanimity under all circumstances, your physical health will be excellent.

Baba (thought for the day)

Take that vitamin G, but if today would be a study circle I am certain they would not get it, there are always excuses.

I guess they don’t understand how easy it is to repeat the name of God. It seems it doesn’t make sense to them to do it. Maybe they don’t understand that it is relaxing and cleansing the mind and by repetition of the name of God we transcend the mind.

I guess they don’t understand and therefore, they don’t see the need to do it. They find excuses not to do it.

Don't drown in the River of it...

You need not drown in the river of life when you encounter the strong storms of trials. Learn to be an expert boatman and you can row across this tumultuous river to the safe shores of God. "He that endureth to the end shall be saved" (Matthew 10:22).
As you work and plan, remember that it is God who is working through you.
Your mind should be charged with joy and detached from all unpleasant experiences.
Be active, but not constantly active; relax completely when not active. Strengthen your will power so that you will not be controlled by circumstances, but will control them.
Develop your will power by striving to do things that you thought you could not do. Work for others. Thus will you develop endurance and strength.
Paramahansa Yogananda

I read the newsletter of Yogananda Paramahansa and you know what, they are real nuns, full dedication and women do really matter.

As you work and plan, remember that it is God who is working through you. Your mind should be charged with joy and detached from all unpleasant experiences.

That was always my aim inside telling myself there must by a reason for all those difficulties.

And I got a letter of my ex and this time it was not upsetting, he explains why coins and he even said that you think the same way and that somehow made feel better.

It makes me reflect on the real values of life.

Continent Walkers, the World his Play

With a little reasoning you can know for yourself the path you need to take, thereafter, it can be trodden step by step until the goal is reached. Whatever be the path, retain this knowledge that attachment causes pain and detachment results in joy. But you cannot easily detach yourself from activity; the mind clings to something or other.

Make it cling to God, let it do all things for God and leave the success or failure, the loss and the profit, the elation or the dejection, to God.

Then you have the secret of peace and contentment.

To get this attitude of surrender and dedication, you must have Faith in God. God, whose play this world is.

This world is not an empty dream; it has a purpose and use. It is the means by which one can discover God. See Him in the beauty, the grandeur, the order and the majesty of Nature.

Baba (thought for the day)

That sounds so easy to know when reading the words of Baba. It is indeed easy to know the direction of the path.

And I just read a good thing about witnessing, because we try to live not only the present, but past and future also and of course, we leave success or failure to him, the same as elation or dejection and we have the secret of peace and contentment.

But in fact, it was not easy in my experience, because it was terrible, it was really past, present and future mixed. In the past I had seen them talking together and there was ‘horror’ in the air, I knew there was something wrong and in the present during sleep there was a nightmare, because in the future, next morning, maybe three hours later, he went under the train.

In that moment was fear and I wanted to not get afraid anymore, therefore, I began to meditate.

Cheerfulness and Reality

Cheerfulness consists principally in the attitude of the mind, and is conditioned only incidentally by outside factors. Your happiness need not die, stricken by poverty, sickness, or sorrow.
Realize that enough hidden strength lies within you to overcome all obstacles and temptations. Bring forth that indomitable power and energy by being cheerful at all times in spite of your circumstances.
Only when you lose your mental balance are you vulnerable to suffering. If you are burned by the fire of difficulties, apply the salve of cheerfulness until your inner balance and peace are restored.
Paramahansa Yogananda

In going inside for truth, arguing was out of question and I noticed that insights are true, when arguing outside would result in Tamas and that will never be true. That was already the case with TM.

We didn’t know what was wrong. There was no way to know, because they don’t know themselves, but Sai Baba took care of the insight that it can be understood. I wondered why it was not possible to see and to know what it was. It forced them to meditate to solve problems.

Intuition the Master of all Knowledge

Intuition is the discriminative faculty that enables you to decide which of two lines of reasoning is right.
Perfect intuition makes you a master of all knowledge.
Your will and intuition should go hand in hand. A person with a strong will usually has an active intuitional power. You should develop the latent intuitive faculty; it can grow only through meditation.
Do not make unimportant things important, nor concentrate on trifles at the expense of vital matters, or you will hamper your progress.
Impulsive actions that are not in keeping with one's real duties are undesirable. Let soul intuition guide your thinking, and then proceed confidently in any undertaking.
Paramahansa Yogananda

That is why I began to go inside and into silent sitting as meditation. The intuition was there as two lines of reasoning, and I acted accordingly but as it turned out it was very difficult to understand.

It was kind of easier to do it than to understand it.

When we are on a not right path, all others involved think it is right and it gets constantly enforced by them that we do the right thing, the peer pressure gets immense and therefore, it seems it leads into a jungle and we have to be able to not get lost in it. And even if it was the right thing to do, it was kind of awful to realize that it was a jungle and that we went through a jungle.

There was the ‘strength of an elephant’ in the air during Baba’s Darshan, it was inner view. Good to know, the elephant is that animal which is able to go through the jungle and it doesn’t get lost.

But to become a master of knowledge is a long way to go, because that insight has to make sense first. 

  

Perfect intuition makes you a master of all knowledge.

Your will and intuition should go hand in hand. A person with a strong will usually has an active intuitional power. You should develop the latent intuitive faculty; it can grow only through meditation.

 

That is the very reason for meditation, because it can grow only through meditation.
After meditation a lioness with their cubes was present in the insight. Usually we look at inner challenge about right and wrong or about path as time and energy waste, because there is no immediate result, it doesn’t make much sense seen in the light of the relative world.