Praise of the Great Hanuman!

Attachment to Body & Mind. Sadhguru

Sadhguru's enlightenment... in his own words

Ten Mental Perfections (Buddha)

The 10 Mental Perfections (paramis = paramitas) are:

1: Generosity (Dāna) 
2: Morality (Sīla)
3: Withdrawal (Nekkhamma) 
4: Understanding (Pañña)
5: Enthusiastic Energy (Viriya)
6: Patient Forbearance (Khanti)
7: Honesty & Truthfulness (Sacca)
8: Resolute Determination (Adhitthāna)
9: Kind Friendliness (Mettā)
10: Imperturbable Equanimity (Upekkhā)

Source: http://what-buddha-said.net/drops/IV/The_Ten_Perfections.htm

Determination (Buddha)

Only determination can completely fulfill the other mental perfections!

Its characteristic is an unwavering decision, its function is to overcome
hesitation, and its manifestation is unfaltering persistence in this task...!
The proximate cause of determination is strong willpower to succeed!
Only the power of resolute determination lifts any praxis to perfection...

When the Future Buddha placed his back against the trunk of The Bodhi
Tree, he right there made this mighty decision: 

"Let just the blood and flesh of this body dry up and let the skin & sinews
fall from the bones. I will not leave this seat before having attained that
absolutely supreme Enlightenment!" So determined did he invincibly seat
himself, from which not even 100 earthquakes could make him waver. 

Whose mind is like a rock, determined, unwavering, immovable,

without a trace of lust of urging towards all the attractions,

without a trace of aversion of pushing away all the repulsive,

from what, can such a refined mind ever suffer?

Source: http://what-buddha-said.net/drops/Determination_Determines.htm

Determination is the Door (Osho)

One and only one moment of determination, of sankalpa, of complete determination is enough, whereas a whole life without it is nothing. Remember it is not time but determination that is the important thing. The achievements of the world are accomplished in the realm of time and those of truth in the realm of determination. Sankalpa, determination, must live in your sadhana.

So what shall I say to you today? We shall be separating tonight and I see that your hearts are already heavy at the prospect. It has only been five days since we all came together here in this lonely spot. Who thought of departure then?

But don't forget that parting is inherent in coming together. They are two sides of the same coin.

Although they appear to be different they always go together. Because they show up separately and on different occasions we are deluded into the false belief that they are not connected. But if you go a little deeper you will find that meeting is itself a parting, that happiness is also grief and that even birth itself is death. Indeed there is hardly any difference between coming and going - or rather, there is no difference at all. It is the same in life. You have hardly come when the process of going begins, and what appears to our minds to be staying on is merely a preparation for leaving.

Really, what is the distance between birth and death? The distance between them can be endless. If life, if this distance between birth and death, becomes a pursuit for self-realization, this distance can have no end to it at all. If life becomes a sadhana, a journey to self-realization, death can become moksha, liberation. While there is not much distance between birth and death, the span between moksha and death is infinite. That distance is as great as the one between body and soul, between a dream and the truth. That distance is much greater than all other distances put together. 

No two points are greater apart than moksha and death.

The illusion that "I am the body" is death; the realization that "I am the soul" is liberation, salvation, moksha. And your life is an opportunity for the realization of truth. If this opportunity for the realization of truth. If this opportunity is used properly and not wasted in vain, the distance between birth and death becomes infinite.

As well, there can be a great distance between your coming here and your departure - a tremendous distance, in just the few days we have spent here. Isn't it possible you will not be the same when you return as when you came? Isn't it possible you may return as entirely new and changed people?

If you want it, this revolution or transformation can take place in a moment. Five days are too many.

If even five previous births have been too few, why talk of five days? Just one moment of will, of complete determination is enough. A whole life without determination is nothing.

Remember that determination and time are the important things. The achievements of the world are made in time; those of truth, in determination. It is the intensity of sankalpa, of determination, that gives a fathomless depth and an infinite expanse to a moment. As a matter of fact, in the intensity of sankalpa time ceases to exist and only eternity remains.

Determination is the door to liberate you from time and unite you with eternity. let your determination be deep and intense. Let it pervade your every breath. Let it be in your memory, asleep or awake.

Only through it can a new birth take place, a birth which knows no death. This is real birth. There is a birth, the birth of the physical body, that inevitably ends in death but I deo not call this real birth.

How can something that ends in death be the beginning of life?

But there is another birth that does not end in death. It is the real birth. Its fulfillment is in immortality. It was for this birth I invited you here, and to this birth I have been calling you for the past few days. We gathered here for that very birth. But merely coming together here is of no value. If you become whole, if you become one and call from the thirst of your own being, then the determination of your entire being will take you into the presence of truth. The truth is very near but you need determination, you need will to approach it. The thirst for truth is there in you but determination is necessary as well. This thirst becomes a sadhana only when it goes hand-in-hand with determination.

What does "determination" mean?

A man once asked a fakir the way to attain God. The fakir looked into his eyes and saw thirst. The fakir was on his way to the river so he asked the man to accompany him and promised to show him the way to attain God after they'd bathed.

They arrived at the river, as soon as the man plunged into the water the fakir grabbed the man's head and pushed it down into the water with great force. The man began to struggle to free himself from the fakir's grip. his life was in danger. He was much weaker than the fakir but his latent strength gradually began to stir and soon it became impossible for the fakir to hold him down. The man pushed himself to the limit and was eventually able to get out of the river. He was shocked. The fakir was laughing loudly and he could not understand his behavior.

After the man had calmed down the fakir asked him, "when you were under the water what desires did you have in your mind?" The man replied, "Desires! there weren't desires, there was just one desire - to get a breath of air." the fakir said, "This is the secret of attaining God. This is determination. And your determination awakened all your latent powers."

In a real moment of intense determination great strength is generated - and a man can leave the world and enter truth. By determination alone one can pass from the world into truth; by determination alone one can awaken from the dream to the truth.

At this time, at the hour of our parting, I want to remind you of this: determination is needed.

And what else? Determination is needed, plus continuity in your sadhana. Your sadhana must be continuous. Have you ever seen a waterfall coming down from the mountains? It is a continuous stream of water that can even break huge rocks. If a man constantly endeavors to break the rocks of ignorance, those rocks that seemed impossible to break in the beginning will one day turn to dust.

And then the man will find his way.

The path is there to be found, without a doubt, but don't try to locate one that's ready-made. You have to find it yourself, by your own efforts. And what dignity this brings a man! How much to our credit it is that we attain truth by our own efforts! Mahavira wanted to convey this when he spoke of truth attained by labor.

The truth is not alms given in charity, it is an achievement. You need determination, continuous effort and one more thing: infinite patience. Truth is infinite, endless, and therefore in waiting for it infinite patience is necessary. God appears only after endless waiting. Those who have no patience cannot attain God. I wanted to remind you of this as well.

Finally, I am reminded of a story I will pass along to you. Although quite imaginary, it is perfectly true.

An angel passed a spot where an old sadhu was sitting. The sadhu said to the angel, "Please ask God how long it will take for me to attain moksha, to achieve liberation." Near the old sadhu a very young, newly-initiated sannyasin was living. He was sitting under a banyan tree. The angel also asked the young sannyasin if he wanted him to ask God about his moksha as well. But the sannyasin did not say a word. He was quiet, calm and silent.

After some time the angel returned. He said to the old sadhu, "I asked God about your moksha. He says it will take three more births." The old man grew furious and his eyes became bloodshot. He threw away his rosary and said, "Three more births! It's atrocious!"

Then the angel went to the young man and said to him, "I also asked God about you. He said you will have to practice your sadhana for as many births as there are leaves on the banyan tree under which you are sitting." The young sannyasin felt very happy and his eyes filled with tears of joy. He jumped up and began to dance. "In that case I have attained! There are so many trees in this world and so many leaves on each of them! and if I will attain God in only as many births as there are leaves on this small banyan tree then I have almost attained him."

This is how the crop of truth is harvested. And do you know the end of this story? The young sannyasin kept on dancing and dancing and that very moment he became free and attained to God. That moment of tranquil and infinite love and patience was everything. That very moment was emancipation. This I call infinite patience. And he who has infinite patience achieves everything here and now. This mental attitude itself is the final attainment. Are you willing to wait this long?

With this question I bid you farewell.

Source: http://oshosearch.net/Convert/Articles_Osho/The_Perfect_Way/Osho-The-Perfect-Way-00000010.html

http://oshosearch.net/Convert/Articles_Osho/The_Perfect_Way/Osho-The-Perfect-Way-index.html

Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi.

Ram Dass speaking on Reality, Consciousness and Meditation

How breath can lead us to freedom? ...A story from swami Vivekanand

There was once a minister to a great king. He fell into disgrace. The king, as a punishment, ordered him to be shut up in the top of a very high tower. This was done, and the minister was left there to perish.

Minister had a faithful wife, however, who came to the tower at night and called to her husband at the top to know what she could do to help him. He told her to return to the tower the following night and bring with her a long rope, some stout twine, pack thread, silken thread, a beetle, and a little honey.

The good wife obeyed her husband, and brought him the desired articles.

The husband directed her to attach the silken thread firmly to the beetle, then to smear its horns with a drop of honey, and to set it free on the wall of the tower, with its head pointing upwards.

She obeyed all these instructions, and the beetle started on its long journey. Smelling the honey ahead it slowly crept onwards, in the hope of reaching the honey, until at last it reached to top of the tower, when the minister grasped the beetle, and got possession of the silken thread.

He told his wife to tie the other end to the pack thread, and after he had drawn up the pack thread, he repeated the process with the stout twine, and lastly with the rope. Then the rest was easy. The minister descended from the tower by means of the rope, and made his escape.

In this body of ours the breath motion is the silken thread; by laying hold of and learning to control it we grasp the pack thread of the nerve currents, and from these the stout twine of our thoughts, and lastly the rope of Prana, controlling which we reach freedom.

Source: http://www.hindu-blog.com/2009/07/story-by-swami-vivekananda.html

Lighting up the here and now

By the POWER of your own willingness simply!

That is the engine that powers electric current of your inner bulb lighting up your now.

It simply requires a firm, un-shakable push from within. That you don't even listen to your mind, your own cultivated self. And that is why it is different from mind, and comes from the recesses of within.

That something which no matter what, knows it is might strong. Just knows. And it is irrationally, un-understandably positive. And will have its way. Because it knows that there is.

The power has to be exponentially pushed (every obstacle helping it along the way) so that it becomes a immense gravitational force that sucks in all obstacles.

Willingness Is the Key to Spiritual Awakening

The further along I go with this awakening that has happened and continues to unfold, the more it becomes apparent that the real key to waking up is wanting to wake up. I know it is a radical idea, but it just so happens to be the truth of the matter. Technique is almost always given top billing in the world of spirituality, but the “how” will always come whenever you are truly willing. But willingness, that’s the crux of the issue.

You may already think you are willing. That’s why you meditate, read books by the spiritual giants, read this blog, talk to your friends about spirituality and awakening and enlightenment, go to retreats, all that good stuff. You have a very convincing case to prove how willing you are. But the truth is, if your willingness were electricity, you wouldn’t have enough to power a night light. 

A firefly could outshine you. Sorry, but it is true.

Look inside for a moment. Feel into this subject of willingness. Can you feel the resistance? Can you feel how much “you” don’t want to really wake up? Something inside of you knows this awakening thing is going to be different, really, really different, and it is frightened about that. Something inside wants to feel better about life, but it doesn’t really want what awakening entails.

Why not? Because the “something” resisting all of this, the “something” that is not willing to awaken, is the very thing from which one awakens! The resistance you are feeling, the UN-willingness, is simple the energy of thought, the “mind” as it were, resisting what is its eventual undoing. Well, maybe undoing is too harsh. Let’s just say that the mind gets to go from being the dominant player in your awareness to being second fiddle.

So there is a massive resistance to awakening. The natural question to ask at this point is “what do I do about it?” Ah, good question. But the question itself is just more resistance. Notice that the question is about doing and about “I”. The “I” is the very thing doing the resisting! The doing is how it resists.

Going beyond this resistance, becoming more willing, is the simplest of things: let it happen. What you are wants this awakening to happen. It is what is waking-up to itself. It IS awake, and is looking for this awakeness to transform everything. So, simply pause and let it happen. It will anyway.

Source: http://tomstine.com/willingness-is-the-key-to-spiritual-awakening/

The Kingdom of God is within you

Jesus was once asked when the kingdom of God would come. The kingdom of God, Jesus replied, is not something people will be able to see and point to. Then came these striking words: “Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.” (Luke 17:21)

With these words, Jesus gave voice to a teaching that is universal and timeless. Look into every great religious, spiritual, and wisdom tradition, and we find the same precept — that life’s ultimate truth, its ultimate treasure, lies within us.

As Jesus made unambiguously clear, we can experience this inner treasure — and no experience could be more valuable. “But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness,” he declared, “and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33). From this interior plane of life, he is saying, we will gain all that is needful.

Aristotle

This inner treasure of life has had many names. Plato refers to it as the Good and the Beautiful, Aristotle as Being, Plotinus as the Infinite, St. Bernard of Clairvaux as the Word, Ralph Waldo Emerson as the Oversoul. In Taoism it is called the Tao, in Judaism Ein Sof. Among Australian aborigines it is called the dreamtime, among tribes of southern Africa Hunhu/Ubuntu. The names may differ, but the inner reality they point to is one and the same.

In every case, it’s understood that this inner, transcendental reality can be directly experienced. This experience has likewise been given different names. In India traditions it is called Yoga, in BuddhismNirvana, in Islam fana, in Christianity spiritual marriage. It is a universal teaching based on a universal reality and a universal experience.

Over the past 20 centuries, leading Christian figures have written extensively on this inner kingdom of God and their personal experience of it. This category of experience forms a vital current in the history of Christianity. Here are just a few brief excerpts from a collection of many:

St. Gregory of Nyssa (c. 335–394 • Turkey)

Gregory of Nyssa, an early Christian theologian, was one of the four great fathers of the Eastern Church and served as Bishop of Nyssa, in the center of modern-day Turkey.

[The soul] leaves all surface appearances, not only those that can be grasped by the senses but also those which the mind itself seems to see, and it keeps on going deeper until by the operation of the spirit it penetrates the invisible and incomprehensible, and it is there that it sees God. The true vision and the true knowledge of what we seek consists precisely in not seeing, in an awareness that our goal transcends all knowledge. . . . [1]

St. Augustine (354–430 • Algeria)

St. Augustine, regarded as one of the towering intellectual geniuses in history, wrote more than a thousand works on philosophy, psychology, theology, history, political theory, and other subjects. HisConfessions, from which the following passage is taken, has remained a popular and influential work for almost 1,600 years.

I entered into the innermost part of myself. . . . I entered and I saw with my soul’s eye (such as it was) an unchangeable light shining above this eye of my soul and above my mind. . . . He who knows truth knows that light, and he who knows that light knows eternity. Love knows it. O eternal truth and true love and beloved eternity! [2]

And I often do this. I find a delight in it, and whenever I can relax from my necessary duties I have recourse to this pleasure. {I experience] a state of feeling which is quite unlike anything to which I am used — a kind of sweet delight which, if I could only remain permanently in that state, would be something not of this world, not of this life. But my sad weight makes me fall back again; I am swallowed up by normality. [3]

St. Gregory the Great (540–604 • Italy)

Born into an eminent Roman family and heir to a large fortune, Gregory decided to become a monk. After he became Pope at the age of 50, he devoted himself to social causes, the first pope especially known for doing so. He reformed the mass and introduced the ritual plainsong known today as the Gregorian chant. He was also a noted theologian. His book, Morals on Job, from which the following passage is taken, influenced religious thought for centuries.

The mind of the elect . . . is frequently carried away into the sweetness of heavenly contemplation; already it sees something of the inmost realities as it were through the mist . . . it feeds on the taste of the unencompassed Light, and being carried beyond self, disdains to sink back again into self. . . .

Sometimes the soul is admitted to some unwonted sweetness of interior relish, and is suddenly in some way refreshed when breathed on by the glowing spirit. . . .

When this is in any way seen, the mind is absorbed in a sort of rapturous security; and carried beyond itself, as though the present life had ceased to be, it is in a way remade in a certain newness [it is refreshed in a manner by a kind of new being . . . ]. There the mind is besprinkled with the infusion of heavenly dew from an inexhaustible fountain. [4]

Johannes Tauler (1300–1361 • France)

Johannes Tauler was one of the most influential German spiritual writers of the 1300s. Martin Luther honored Tauler as a primary influence, and Tauler has exerted a profound influence on religious thought ever since. As one scholar remarked, “Tauler presents the Christian tradition in its purest form.” [5]

The soul has a hidden abyss, untouched by time and space, which is far superior to anything that gives life and movement to the body. Into this noble and wondrous ground, this secret realm, there descends that bliss of which we have spoken. Here the soul has its eternal abode. Here a man becomes so still and essential, so single-minded and withdrawn, so raised up in purity, and more and more removed from all things. . . . This state of the soul cannot be compared to what it has been before, for now it is granted to share in the divine life itself. [6]

St. Teresa of Avila (1515–1582 • Spain)

St. Teresa was one of the greatest women of the Roman Catholic church. Her books are considered masterpieces. St. Teresa initiated the Carmelite Reform, which restored the original contemplative character of the Carmelite order. In 1970 she was Doctor of the Church — one of just 33 individuals, and the first woman, to be so honored by the Catholic church.

My soul at once becomes recollected and I enter the state of quiet or that of rapture, so that I can use none of my faculties and senses. . . .

Everything is stilled, and the soul is left in a state of great quiet and deep satisfaction. [7]

From this recollection there sometimes springs an interior peace and quietude which is full of happiness, for the soul is in such a state that it thinks there is nothing that it lacks. Even speaking — by which I mean vocal prayer and meditation — wearies it: it would like to do nothing but love. This condition lasts for some time, and may even last for long periods. [8]

Thomas Merton (1915–1969 • United States)

After completing a masters degree in English at Columbia University in New York, Merton entered the Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani, in Kentucky, as a monk. He was later ordained as a priest. He published more than 15 books of spiritual writings, poetry, fiction, and essays, and participated in movements for social justice and peace. He took great interest in the religions of the East, particularly Zen, for the light they shed on the depth of human consciousness. From the seclusion of the monastery, he exerted a worldwide influence.

In the following passage Merton describes the experience of “contemplation.” He uses the term not in the current sense (thinking intently about something) but in its older sense, to describe the experience of transcending thought:

The utter simplicity and obviousness of the infused light which contemplation pours into our soul suddenly awakens us to a new level of awareness. We enter a region which we had never even suspected, and yet it is this new world which seems familiar and obvious. The old world of our senses is now the one that seems to us strange, remote and unbelievable. . . .

A door opens in the center of our being and we seem to fall through it into immense depths which, although they are infinite, are all accessible to us; all eternity seems to have become ours in this one placid and breathless contact. . . .

You feel as if you were at last fully born. [9]

Source: https://www.tm.org/blog/enlightenment/kingdom-of-god-is-within-you/

Energy! Georgian National Ballet

Be Here Now - Ram Dass - Audiobook Full

Book Source: https://www.dmt-nexus.me/Files/Books/General/be_here_now2.pdf

Great Indian Yogi: Neem karoli baba

Asti, bhati, preeti, naam, roopa (Sri Sri)

Tat Tvam Asi (You are that) - when you experience that there is no other. The whole universe is made up of one vibration.  It is one thing that has become many. 

This is the modern thought also. If you read today's quantum physics, they say exactly word to word of what the ancient Advaita Philosopher Adi Shankara had said, that the whole universe is made up of one thing, there is no two. 

You are made up of a substance called love and love is the nature of the divine.

Asti, bhati, preeti - these three are the natures of consciousness.
Asti - the self; bhati – which is present is the whole creation; and preeti - the love it is made of.
And then nama and roopa - name and form.
So, name, form, existence, alive consciousness and love are the five aspects of divinity.

See the table and chair over there, we think it is dead and it has no consciousness. But it is not true, everything is conscious. It is, asti, bhati, preeti, naam and roopa. 

The world is all name and form. The consciousness is one step beyond which is formless yet remains in all the forms. And meditation is abiding in the self; experiencing the deep inner space. When you are in meditation you are connected to the infinite past, infinite future and the depth of the presence.

This also could become one of the concepts that you have in your mind, unless and until you start feeling it as an authentic reality in your life; as true as a pain you feel in your feet, when you have one.

Source: http://clevelandohiousa.tripod.com/srisri2222222/

Cultivating The Heart of Compassion ~ Ram Dass (Metta Karuna Brahmavihara)

Ram Dass gives Maharaji LSD for the second time

Yog Aagam (Conversation on yoga in himalayan cave)

Another: http://www.akhandjyoti.org/?Akhand-Jyoti/2004/Mar-Apr/ImmortalBeingsHimalayas/

Science of breathing

Source: http://sacred-texts.com/eso/sob/index.htm

Schidananda