BEYOND THE DUALITY OF GAINING AND LOSING PEACE - PART 15

With the practice of self-enquiry, seekers often have experiences of profound peace and silence. However, these peaceful experiences are not stable. Sooner or later seekers will experience some type of stress or drama in everyday life, and then they will feel that they have lost this sense of peace and stillness. 


The series will share pointers that reveal the pattern of attraction and aversion that create "heaven" and "hell" and keep seekers trapped on the roller coaster of pleasure and pain.


Watch your thoughts as you watch the street traffic. People come and go; you register without response. It may not be easy in the beginning, but with some practice you will find that your mind can function on many levels at the same time and you can be aware of them all. It is only when you have a vested interest in any particular level, that your attention gets caught in it and you black out on other levels. Even then the work on the blacked out levels goes on, outside the field of consciousness. Do not struggle with your memories and thoughts; try only to include in your field of attention the other, more important questions, like ‘Who am I?’ ‘How did I happen to be born?’ ‘Whence this uni-verse around me?‘ ‘What is real and what is momentary?’ No memory will persist, if you lose interest in it; it is the emotional link that perpetuates the bondage. You are always seeking pleasure, avoiding pain, always after happiness and peace. Don’t you see that it is your very search for happiness that makes you feel miserable? Try the other way: indifferent to pain and pleasure, neither asking, nor refusing, give all your attention to the level on which ‘I am’ is timelessly present. Soon you will realise that peace and happiness are in your very nature and it is only seeking them through some particular channels, that disturbs.


 –       Nisargadatta Maharaj


Remember, to know Yourself, return to the silence before words.

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