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Articles from the Heart of Satsang
Blog
Articles from the Heart of Satsang
Articles
Hans was one of Papaji’s earliest western students. When they first met he lived in Germany and he would go to India, to Haridwar, for about three months at a time, often staying in a guesthouse with Papaji. They would share a room and go on long walks along the river, mostly in silence, which is where he asked Papaji this question….
Practiced diligently, meditation techniques purify the mind because they bring awareness to unholy patterns of thought and feeling. Unhealthy thoughts cannot survive the penetrating light of awareness. Nothing purifies like experience of the Self, which releases a flood of healing, cleansing, spiritual energy into the conscious and unconscious minds.
The most important part of the story of my time with Papaji actually came later. I realised I had been a long time in the dilemma of appearing to be ‘in’ and ‘out’ of Self. Papaji would often talk about the memory of spiritual experiences being just another memory, the past.
What is enlightenment?
‘I am bound’ is a concept that everyone has clung to [but] he cannot show any chains or fetters by which he is bound. This is his concept. He must have been told by someone, or read some books, or heard from his parents or priests or…
We all know it’s beautiful when the heart opens and the tears flow, and the love is gushing out. What more could we want at that time? Because when we are in that type of love – which is devotion itself – there’s almost no mind. The mind just disappears in that love and in that devotion, but as one teacher said to me, “And in that place no one wants to enquire.”
Devageet – Osho’s personal dentist recently left his body. He wrote this poem after having been diagnosed with cancer. He was a giant made of gold who left this world a better place through the richness of his generous sharing… I bow down in gratitude to his roaring sprit..
There was a diamond thief who thought to steal only the most exquisite of gems. This thief would hang around the diamond district to see who was purchasing a gem, so that later he could pick their pocket. One day he saw a well-known diamond merchant purchase the jewel he had been waiting for all his life…
“Wow, this silence and bliss is so beautiful.” He gets up and says, “I’m going downstairs to make some yoghurt.” So, I follow Him down, and I said, “Why did you do that?” He said, “Where’s your silence now?” I said, “Well, it’s still here.” He said, “This is why I did it.”
As I sat there looking at him doing what I could to just be and when the five seconds were over he asked me what happened. I said well I’m just sitting here. He said, no, no, I told you no thinking. I am sitting here thinking. So let’s do it again. So we did it again. At that point I…
I would say that that seeing of our nature is like the first step in an ongoing process that reveals everything that’s been suppressed or been jumped over, and in that process it’s really a fire, but ultimately the fire is not for any person, it’s actually for the benefit of all beings.
Then one day, this was the big change, I’ll never forget it, never to this day.
He sat up cross-legged on His bed and I was sitting on the floor in the hospital.
He drew a line and He said, “Look.” He said it like, “Look (gruffly), this is a line. On this side of the line is everything you’ve ever known, everything…
I went into stillness immediately. But I kept going back to my mind and believing my mind and feeling caught up. Mind is a tricky thing, it can make you believe it, even when it’s a lie, it can make you believe it’s not a lie.
That’s why I say forget everything the mind tells you, because it’s a deceitful thing the mind…
There are a couple of things that Papaji says: ‘Having the longing for enlightenment is enlightenment.’ I think that is a very beautiful statement; it’s both profound and compelling at the same time. One other thing: ‘A little bit is enough. There is no more, a glimpse is enough.’
It’s simple, even if you don’t think you’re free, or even if you’re not completely free, have the conviction that you are free. Even if you know it intellectually that you’re free, hold on to that. It may be just intellectual, but it will help you because it won’t let your mind disturb you so much.
A person like Ramana Maharshi or a person like Eckhart Tolle, who I know quite well, who realised, and that’s it, end of doubts, end of everything, end of the vasanas, the tendencies, is very, very rare. It’s a very, very rare occurrence.
I urge all of you, to listen to the pull. To listen to your heart, to listen to your call, especially in this business that we’re involved with, or this what we’re involved with…
SUDDENLY THE SOUND OF
SINGING BIRDS AT SUNRISE
PENETRATES MY BEING
AWARENESS
OF A SUBTLE POWER
THE EARLY MORNING SUN…
I asked the Master how much effort you have to make if you want to be free. Papaji whispered, he said, ‘You don’t have to make any effort to be free.’ The moment I heard those words, a vision appeared in my mind’s eye. I saw water flowing down the side of a mountain…
Alienation from nature and the loss of the experience of being part of the living creation is the greatest tragedy of our materalistic era. It is the causative reason for ecological devastation and climate change. Therefore I attribute absolute highest importance to consciousness change.
I don’t know if you’ve noticed this, but when you’re really, really Quiet, there’s so much Beauty! Everything is beautiful! It was one of those days: today, the ocean was beautiful, the houses were beautiful, the people were beautiful, the weather was beautiful, the paintings were beautiful, the lunch was great. It was just like a flow through Beauty, the whole day.
Unfortunately we have been filled up in our education by all kinds of ideas. If we want to be really happy, then we have to be special, and if we do these special things, that will make us especially happy. So we aspire to having a big house or car or special clothes, because this is supposed to make us happy. This way of desire is actually the game of society, because societies are now-a-days based on this idea of desire.
But this game of desire simply doesn’t work, because it only can give you a feeling of satisfaction for a short moment.
The only true way to step out of all the stories and all the nonsense is to really see with great clarity that this ‘me’ that we are so fond of referring everything to, simply doesn’t exist. Once you see it doesn’t exist then the whole thing falls away. Everything just falls away and you’re left with what is.
Often there is a tremendous release of energy.
The first thing I would say is that there are not any enlightened people. This word enlightenment is a wrong word. It is like sex or love or god. It is like some idea far away in the future. Maybe it has a value because it can bring people to find themselves, just as the peak of Mount Everest brings people to climb mountains.
Some argue that because the Self is already realized, only the unenlightened mind-ego entity can get enlightened. Others say that since only the Self exists, there is no ego to get enlightened. These apparently opposing views suggest that ignorance both exists and does not exist.
Love is our Being, Being is existence, so love is existence. Your essential state is love. What distorts that is that we look outside for love not realising that the love we experience outside is a reflection of the love we have for our deepest self.
It’s quite clear that for almost everybody this issue of intimacy with another human being is a strong structure, a strong issue. In the eastern traditions of Buddhism and Hinduism there is a deep understanding that if you seriously want to become a spiritual seeker you become celibate and stay alone.
No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there.
And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be,because death is very likely the single best invention of life.
“Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes … the ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules, and they have no respect for the status quo. …
On my last blog I published this exchange between Sosan and his Master Huike.
Apparently Sosan spent six years with Huike who had received the transmission of the Buddha’s teaching from Bodhidarma.
Osho told that many people…
Sōsan’s Master for six years was Huike whose Master was Bodhidharma who Buddha sent to China.
Sōsan: I am riddled with sickness. Please absolve me of my sin.
Huike: Bring your sin here and I will absolve you.
Sōsan: (after a long pause): When I look for my sin, I cannot
find it.
Huike: I have absolved you. You should live by the Buddha, the
Dharma, and the Sangha.
The Great Way is not difficult
for those who have no preferences.
When not attached to love or hate,
all is clear and undisguised.
Separate by the smallest amount, howe
and you are as far from it as heaven is from earth.
Love is an energy. It has nothing to do with boys and girls and falling in love and candlelight dinners. That’s not what I would call love. I would call that a disease.
Andrew Cohen in his “Meeting with Remarkable People,” interview talked about the issue of stablising or embodying the new reality once a strong energetic opening has occurred. How easily the ego structures can close things down and therefore the need for work on strong inner mind patterns.
Of course I respect that everybody here has read the same books that I’ve read. We all read the same books so we all know what the books say but of course we don’t really ‘know’ from reading books.
You’re all awakened. It’s very beautiful to realise that you’re already complete, you’ve already got everything, there’s nothing more to get from the outside. In fact the only thing to get from the outside is not to look so much on the outside and to look more on the inside.
My understanding is that the point of our life, if anything, is to become Self-realised. This means that we see the ego, the movie of our life, is not who we are. When this is clearly seen, everything profoundly changes.
You have asked for my ten Commandments. It’s a difficult matter,
because I am against any kind of commandment.
Yet, just for the fun of it.
JD: It’s very easy to say, “I don’t need to look at anything, ‘I am nothing.’”
Q: I did therapy where I ended up in very nice love space with an open heart. Then I met you and Advaita and discovered this “Oh, I’m nothing,” and again I don’t need to look to anything.
JD: But this is just a nice idea. It is one of the popular mistakes made by people during the last years in Satsang, about non duality.
JD: Hello Bhakti, which is the Hindi word for devotion.
BHA: This is my treasure. In the first three minutes of silence, already I noticed I’m always just in thoughts.
So busy in the thoughts, and then I go more into myself and the tears came. If I hear you talking, then in just a short time I really can go into my heart. I appreciate this so much and I really recognise your energy, like a mystery.
Does sex help me to wake up or does it prevent me from that?
I think it can help and hinder. It depends. When sex is just pure, then actually it isn’t such a big deal. It’s an energy phenomenon.
Intimate relating creates an energy field, a circle between the two people. Normally, with sex, it’s between two people, but it could be the energy flowing through twenty people.
CH: I’m very touched.
JD: Yes.
CH: There’s a deep longing to really live, to connect and to share. It’s very, very strong, I didn’t expect that.
JD: This came out of just doing this ten minute exercise?
CH: Yes, a strong urge to live.
I have observed that amongst spiritual seekers there is some confusion about the topic of change. Often people have glimpses, moments or times when the identification with the thoughts, emotions and all the things that normally tie people down, breaks down.
Much of life has become solely focused on material wealth. Money has become the focus all around the world, and through that focus the planet itself has become threatened by the ecological consequences. Yet the economic rationalism of the society always takes first place.
Authentic Intimacy becomes possible when two people meet without the daily drama of “my life.” This relating is about presence, just being there in a dance with the other. Being present with everything that simply is.
In ancient times and still in modern India, a particular spiritual tradition is passed down from a teacher to a student and in turn to his student. So there is a sense of lineage and nobody takes any personal claim on that lineage. The truth is important, not the teacher.
There will be War until you find Inner Peace which is your Essential Nature.
Peace is your essential nature. Therefore there is nothing to do to be at Peace. We arrive on this planet in tremendous Peace with an invitation to enjoy, play and have fun! Then our parents raise us to be adults and without knowing better, they condition us to be nearly constantly at war.
The only sure way to step out of all the stories and all the nonsense is to really see with great clarity that this ‘me’ that we are so fond of referring everything to, simply doesn’t exist. Once you see it doesn’t exist then the whole thing falls away. Everything just falls away and you’re left with your essence.
Love is
Only love is
Love moves the leaves in the wind and the planets in the universe
All is LOVE and you are this LOVE
What exactly is Love? Love is very, very difficult to talk about. I can start perhaps by talking about what love isn’t, because love isn’t all the love songs, all the romantic love stories, all the television dramas.
This drama of love between couples is definitely not really love.
We are the ocean, love and devotion, let’s just surrender, always remember nobody ever was, life is but a dream.
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