The True Nature of Reality

In this way and that I have tried to save the old pail  Since the bamboo strip was weak and about to break  Until at last the bottom fell out.  No more water in the pail!  No more moon in the water!     -- Chiyono  Remember, to know Yourself, return to the silence before words.

Here – sitting outside with the laptop – there is the view of a natural wilderness – the huge oak tree, fields of nasturtium leaves, geraniums with deep pink flowers, a white butterfly, the smell of jasmine on the creeper nearby, two white arum lilies, overhead the blue sky and drifting white clouds, the sounds of unseen birds, wasps building nests in the eaves, a dog soaking up the sun, the call of the Egyptian geese.  How is it possible to describe the inexplicable emptiness of this amazing array? Everything is simply this unfathomable emptiness – ONE – but expressed with this veneer of solidity that appears different – the red geranium, the brown dog. Ha!  The gaze can look for hours on this scene marveling at this dance of nothing showing itself in a thousand different ways. What Am I? The question is answered in everything – the NOTHING or the emptiness that is recognized points directly to this unfathomable mystery. I am THAT; I AM.   Everything happens n...

Self-enquiry must be done continuously. It doesn't work if you regard it as a part-time activity. You must have a lifelong commitment to establish yourself in the Self. Your determination to succeed must be strong and firm, and it should manifest as continuous effort.  –         Sri Annamalai Swami Remember, to know Yourself, return to the silence before words.

Try to be, only to be. The all-important word is "try". Allot enough time daily for sitting quietly and trying, just trying, to go beyond the personality with its addictions and obsessions. Don't ask how, it cannot be explained. You just keep on trying until you succeed. If you persevere, there can be no failure. What matters supremely is sincerity, earnestness; you must really have had surfeit of being the person you are; now see the urgent need of being free of this unnecessary self-identification with a bundle of memories and habits. This steady resistance against the unnecessary is the secret of success.   -- Nisargadatta Maharaj  Remember, to know Yourself, return to the silence before words.

Effortless and choiceless awareness is our real nature. If we can attain it or be in that state, it is all right. But, one cannot reach it without effort, the effort of deliberate 'meditation'. All the age-long vasanas carry the mind outward and turn it to external objects. All such thoughts have to be given up and the mind turned inward. For that, effort is necessary for most people. Of course everybody, every book says : "சும்மா இரு " , " BE STILL ". But, it is not easy. That is why all this effort is necessary. Even if we find one who has at once achieved the Silence the Supreme State, you may take it that the effortless and choiceless awareness is reached only after deliberate 'meditation'. That meditation can take any form which appeals to you best. See what helps you to keep away all other thoughts and adopt that method for your meditation.  –        Ramana Maharshi Remember, to know Yourself, return to the silence before wor...

Bhagavan sometimes used the analogy of a  besieged  fort. If one systematically closes off all the entrances to a fort and then picks off the occupants one by one as they try to come out, sooner or later the fort will be empty. We should apply these same tactics to the mind. How to go about doing this? Seal off the entrances and exits to the mind by not reacting to rising thoughts or sense impressions. Don't let new ideas, judgements, likes, dislikes, etc. enter the mind, and don't let rising thoughts flourish and escape your attention. When you have sealed off the mind in this way, challenge each emerging thought as it appears by asking, 'Where have you come from?' or 'Who is the person who is having this thought?' If you can do this continuously, with full attention, new thoughts will appear momentarily and then disappear. If you can maintain the siege for long enough, a time will come when no more thoughts arise; or if they do, they will only be fleeting, u...

View and Meditation of the Great Perfection  by the first Jamgon Kontrul Rinpoche   Homage to the Guru, the teacher.  The View and Meditation of Dzogchen can be explained in many, many ways,  but simply sustaining the essence of present awareness includes them all.  Your mind won't be found elsewhere.   It is the very nature of this moment-to-moment thinking.   Regard nakedly the essence of this thinking and you find present awareness, right where you are.  Why chase after thoughts, which are superficial ripples of present awareness?  Rather look directly into the naked, empty nature of thoughts; then there is no duality, no observer, and nothing observed.  Simply rest in this transparent, nondual present awareness.  Make yourself at home in the natural state of pure presence, just being, not doing anything in particular.  Present awareness is empty, open, and luminous; not a concrete substa...