In AHAM we honor and acknowledge
all who have attained enlightenment, from whatever tradition or by whatever
method or means.
We
now happily present some Words of Wisdom, or quotations from their books,
of some of these Conscious Teachers:
- Annamalai
Swami – from “Living By The Words Of Bhagavan”
and “Final Talks”
- Mouna
Sadhu – from “In Days Of Great Peace”
- Nisargadatta
Maharaj – from “I AM THAT”
- Ramesh
Balsekar – from “Pointers of Nisargadatta Maharaj”
- Neville
– from “The Power of Awareness” and “Faith
Is Your Fortune”
- Osho
– from “The Book Of Nothing”
- Jean
Klein – from “The Ease of Being”
- Eckhart
Tolle – from “Practicing the Power of Now”
- Poonjaji
– from “The Truth Is”
- Gangaji
– from “You Are That”
These are just a few selections.
Their books also can be purchased
from our Catalog in the Bookstore.
Annamalai
Swami
“Living By the Words of Bhagavan Ramana”
Questioner:
You say that everything is the Self, even maya (illusion).
If this is so, why can’t I see the Self clearly? Why is it hidden
from me?
Annamalai Swami:
Because you are looking in the wrong direction. You have the idea that
the Self is something that you see or experience. This is not so. The
Self is the awareness or the consciousness in which the seeing and the
experiencing take place.
Even if you don’t
see the Self, the Self is still there. Bhagavan sometimes remarked humorously:
“People just open a newspaper and glance through it. Then they
say, ‘I have seen the paper.’ But really they haven’t
seen the paper, they have only seen the letters and pictures that are
on it. There can be no words or pictures without the paper, but people
always forget the paper while they are reading the words.”
Bhagavan would then use
this analogy to show that while people see the names and forms that
appear on the screen of consciousness, they ignore the screen itself.
With this kind of partial vision it is easy to come to the conclusion
that all forms are unconnected with each other and separate from the
person who sees them. If people were to be aware of the consciousness,
instead of the forms that appear in it, they would realize that all
forms are just appearances, which manifest within the one indivisible
consciousness.
That consciousness is the
Self that you are looking for. You can be that consciousness but you
can never see it, because it is not something that is separate from
you.
(Page 266)
Questioner:
How am I to know if I am making any progress in my meditation?
Annamalai Swami: Those
who meditate a lot often develop a subtle form of ego. They become pleased
with the idea that they are making some progress; they become pleased
with the states of peace and bliss that they enjoy; they become pleased
that they have learned to exercise some control over their wayward minds;
or they may derive some satisfaction from the fact that they have found
a good Guru or good method of meditation. All these feelings are ego
feelings. When ego feelings are present, awareness of the Self is absent.
The thought “I am meditating” is an ego thought. If real
meditation is taking place, this thought cannot arise.
Don’t worry about
whether you are making progress or not. Just keep your attention on
the Self twenty-four hours a day. Meditation is not something that should
be done in a particular position at a particular time. It is an awareness
and an attitude that must persist throughout the day. To be effective,
meditation must be continuous.
If you want to water a
field you dig a channel to the field and send water continuously along
it for a lengthy period of time. If you send water for only ten seconds
and then stop, the water sinks into the ground even before it reaches
the field. You will not be able to reach the Self and stay there without
a prolonged, continuous effort. Each time you give up trying, or get
distracted, some of your previous effort goes to waste.
Continuous inhalation and
exhalation are necessary for the continuance of life. Continuous meditation
is necessary for all those who want to stay in the Self.
(Page 18)
Annamalai
Swami
“Final Talks”
Annamalai Swami:
Constant meditation is the only way. If you bring light into your room,
the darkness immediately goes away. You have to see that the light is
not put out. It has to be continuously burning so that there is no darkness.
Until you get firmly established in the Self, you have to continue with
your meditation. Doubts take possession of you only if you forget yourself.
Questioner:
My doubts are not my only problem. I find that my yearning for the
Self is not very strong. This bothers me quite a lot.
Annamalai Swami:
When you forget the state of being yourself, then is the time to inquire,
“Who forgets the Self? Who is in doubt? Who is having the confusion?”
Inquire in this way. Discard all that is not you and come back to yourself.
Questioner:
Sometimes I am overpowered by self-doubt.
Annamalai Swami:
If the meditation is not continuous enough, the other part of the mind
becomes predominant. You have to overpower this mind that is taking
you away from yourself by repeatedly doing this self-inquiry.
When you churn curd and
separate butter and buttermilk, they will not become one again after
they have been separated. If you take milk from the cow’s udder,
it will never go back into the cow again. In the same way, if you become
established in the Self, you will never go back into ignorance again.
(Pages 82-83)
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of Conscious Teachers
Mouna Sadhu
“In Days Of Great Peace”
Maharshi has left this
world. But those who have understood his mission, his message and his
teachings have not remained orphans. He still lives in their hearts
and his influence will increase as they advance towards truth. They
do not mourn the departure of the beloved Master and friend. The same
light is still shining on his pupils scattered all over the world, for
it is also the very core of their own being.
When many years ago one
of his pupils said that he wanted to remain in the Ashram at any cost,
to be always in the physical vicinity of “Bhagavan”, Maharshi
answered: “The spiritual Being dwelling in you is the real Bhagavan.
That is what you have to realize.”
Can there be any loftier
spiritual conception? In discovering our own real Self we discover our
beloved Master at the same time. And there is no other way. This Self
is All, and nothing exists beyond and apart from It.
So there is no use searching for anything else but the Self; all else
is illusion.
(Page 197)
The thoughts about God
came to me after a long stay in the (Ramana) Ashram, at the end of my
period of silence, called “mouna”.
Western beliefs, imposed
on us and assimilated from our childhood, such as the idea of an anthropomorphic
Highest Being, were not so easily transformed into less naïve and
deeper conceptions. Although some years before my coming to India the
grosser forms of religious prejudices had already been discarded –
I mean the formal not the spiritual side, present in every religion
– yet their discarding proved quite insufficient in the atmosphere
of Maharshi. Being near him one feels the presence of God as a matter
of course – no arguments or proofs are necessary. It is extremely
difficult to express in words what the mind can never grasp. The Sage
continually repeats that God can be known only subjectively, never as
something outside ourselves, but rather as our own real life, our own
innermost core or being.
We do not then think about
the Highest Being as dwelling somewhere in heaven, or as the primary
cause, or beginning of all things, the primal movement that creates
the universe, or in any other clear, comforting mental conception, for
none of these speculations bring us nearer to reality.
“We should experience
God in a more realistic way, every day, every minute, every second.
In other words, we should feel being in Him, as this
is the Truth. He is the only Reality, the basic principle of everything
we see and experience.”
- Sri Ramana Maharshi
(Page 135-136)
List
of Conscious Teachers
Nisargadatta
Maharaj
“I AM THAT”
Questioner:
How is it that in spite of so much instruction and assistance we
make no progress?
Maharaj:
As long as we imagine ourselves to be separate personalities, one quite
apart from another, we cannot grasp reality, which is essentially impersonal.
First, we must know ourselves as witnesses only, dimensionless and timeless
centers of observation, and then realize that immense ocean of pure
awareness, which is both mind and matter beyond both.
Questioner:
Whatever I may be in reality, yet I feel myself to be a small and
separate person, one amongst many.
Maharaj:
Your being a person is due to the illusion of space and time; you imagine
yourself to be at a certain point occupying a certain volume; your personality
is due to your self-identification with the body. Your thoughts and
feelings exist in succession; they have their span in time and make
you imagine yourself, because of memory, as having duration. In reality,
time and space exist in you; you do not exist in them. They are modes
of perception, but they are not the only ones. Time and space are like
words written on paper; the paper is real, the words merely a convention.
How old are you?
Questioner:
Forty-eight!
Maharaj:
What makes you say forty-eight? What makes you say, I am here? …
It’s verbal habits born from assumptions. The mind creates time
and space and takes its own creations for reality. All is here and now,
but we do not see it. Truly, all is in me and by me. There is nothing
else. The very idea of “else” is a disaster and a calamity.
(Page 205)
Maharaj:
The word “I AM” itself is a bridge. Remember it, think of
it, explore it, go round it, look at it from all directions, dive into
it with earnest perseverance: endure all delays and disappointments
until suddenly the mind turns around, away from the word, towards the
reality beyond the word. It is like trying to find a person knowing
his name only. A day comes when your inquiries bring you to him and
the name becomes reality. Words are valuable, for between the word and
its meaning there is a link; and, if one investigates the word assiduously,
one crosses beyond the concept into the experience at the root of it.
As a matter of fact, such repeated attempts to go beyond the words is
what is called meditation.
(Page 435)
List
of Conscious Teachers
Ramesh
Balsekar
“Pointers From Nisargadatta Maharaj”
Questioner:
What then is “God” to whom I am expected to pray?
Maharaj:
Let us talk about prayer later. Now then, what exactly is this “God”
you are talking about? Is he not the very consciousness – the
sense of “being” that one has – because of which you
are able to ask questions? “I am” itself is God.
What is it that you love most? Is it not this “I am”, the
conscious presence which you want to preserve at any cost? The seeking
itself is God. In seeking you discover that “you”
are apart from his body-mind complex. If you were not conscious, would
the world exist for you? Would there be any idea of a God? And, the
consciousness in you and the consciousness in me – are they different?
Are they not separate only as concepts, seeking unity unconceived, and
is that not love?
Questioner:
Now, I understand what is meant by “God is nearer to me than
I am to myself.”
Maharaj:
Also remember, There can be no proof of Reality other than being
it. Indeed you are it, and have always been. Consciousness
leaves with the end of the body (and is therefore time-bound) and with
it leaves the duality, which is the basis of consciousness and manifestation.
Questioner:
What then is prayer, and what is its purpose?
Maharaj:
Prayer, as it is generally understood, is nothing but begging for something.
Actually, prayer means communion-uniting-Yoga. Actually, just be.
(Page 33)
List
of Conscious Teachers
Neville
“The Power of Awareness”
I AM
“All things when
they are admitted are made manifest by the light: for everything that
is made manifest is light.”
(Eph. 5:13)
The “Light”
is consciousness. Consciousness is one, manifesting in legions
of forms or levels of consciousness. There is no one that is not all
that is, for consciousness, though expressed in an infinite series of
levels, is not divisional. There is no real separation or gap in consciousness.
I AM cannot be divided. I may conceive myself to be a rich man, a beggar
man or a thief, but the center of my being remains the same regardless
of the concept I hold of myself. At the center of manifestation there
is only one I AM manifesting in legions of forms or concepts of itself
and “I am that I AM.”
I AM is the self-definition
of the absolute, the foundation on which everything rests. I AM is the
first cause-substance. I AM is the self-definition of God.
“I
AM hath sent me unto you.”
“I AM THAT I AM.”
“Be still and know that I AM God.”
I AM is a feeling of permanent
awareness. The very center of consciousness is the feeling of I AM.
I may forget who I am, where I am, what I
am but I cannot forget that I AM. The awareness of being remains,
regardless of the degree of forgetfulness of who, where, and what I
am.
(Pages 1-2)
“Prove me now
herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows
of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room
enough to receive it.”
(Malachi
3:10)
The windows of heaven may
not be opened and the treasures seized by a strong will, but they open
of themselves and present their treasures as a free gift – a gift
that comes when absorption reaches such a degree that it results in
a feeling of complete acceptance.
(Page 53)
Neville
“Your Faith Is Your Fortune”
BEFORE ABRAHAM
WAS
“Verily, verily,
I say unto you, before Abraham was I AM.”
(John 8:58)
“In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
In the beginning was the
unconditioned awareness of being, and the unconditioned awareness of
being became conditioned by imagining itself to be something, and the
unconditioned awareness of being became that which it had imagined itself
to be; so did creation begin.
By this law – first
conceiving, then becoming that conceived – all things evolve out
of No-thing; and without this sequence there is not anything made that
is made.
Before Abraham or the world
was – I AM. When all of time shall cease to be – I AM. I
AM the formless awareness of being conceiving myself to be man. By my
everlasting law of being I am compelled to be and to express all that
I believe myself to be.
I AM the eternal No-thingness
containing within my formless self, the capacity to be all things. I
AM that in which all my conceptions of myself live and move and have
their being, and apart from which they are not.
I dwell within every conception
of myself; from this withinness I ever seek to transcend all conceptions
of myself. By the very law of my being I transcend my conceptions of
myself, only as I believe myself to be that which does transcend.
I AM the law of being and
beside ME there is no law. I AM that I AM.
(Page 1-2)
YOU SHALL
DECREE
“So shall my
word be that goeth forth out of my mouth; it shall not return unto me
void, but it shall accomplish that which I Please, and it shall Prosper
in the thing whereto, I sent it.”
(Isaiah 55:11)
Man can decree a thing
and it will come to pass.
Man has always decreed
that which has appeared in his world. He is today decreeing that which
is appearing in his world and he shall continue to do so as long as
man is conscious of being man.
Nothing has ever appeared
in man's world but what man decreed that it should. This you may deny;
but try as you will you cannot disprove it for this decreeing is based
upon a changeless principle. Man does not command things to appear by
his words, which are, more often than not, a confession of his doubts
and fears. Decreeing is ever done in consciousness.
Every man automatically
expresses that which he is conscious of being. Without effort or the
use of words, at every moment of time, man is commanding himself to
be and to possess that which he is conscious of being and possessing.
This changeless principle
of expression is dramatized in all the Bibles of the world. The writers
of our sacred books were illumined mystics, past masters in the art
of psychology. In telling the story of the soul they personified this
impersonal principle in the form of a historical document both to preserve
it and to hide it from the eyes of the uninitiated.
Today those to whom this
great treasure has been entrusted, namely, the priesthoods of the world,
have forgotten that the Bibles are psychological dramas representing
the consciousness of man; in their blind forgetfulness they now teach
their followers to worship its characters as men and women who actually
lived in time and space.
When man sees the Bible
as a great psychological drama with all of its characters and actors
as the personified qualities and attributes of his own consciousness,
then-and then only-will the Bible reveal to him the light of its symbology.
This impersonal principle of life that made all things is personified
as God. This Lord God, creator of heaven and earth, is discovered to
be man's awareness of being. If man were less bound by orthodoxy and
more intuitively observant, he could not fail to notice in the reading
of the Bibles that the awareness of being is revealed hundreds of times
throughout this literature.
To name a few: "I
AM hath sent me unto you.” "Be still and know that I AM God.”
"I AM the Lord and there is no God.” "I AM the shepherd.”
"I AM the door.” "I AM the resurrection and the life.”
"I AM the way.” "I AM the beginning and the end."
I AM; man's unconditioned
awareness of being is revealed as Lord and creator of every conditioned
state of being. If man would give up his belief in a God apart from
himself, recognize his awareness of being to be God (this awareness
fashions itself in the likeness and image of its conception of itself),
he would transform his world from a barren waste to a fertile field
of his own liking.
The day man does this he
will know that he and his Father are one but his Father is greater than
he. He will know that his consciousness of being is one with that which
he is conscious of being, but that his unconditioned consciousness of
being is greater than his conditioned state or his conception of himself.
When man discovers his
consciousness to be the impersonal power of expression, which power
eternally personifies itself in his conceptions of himself, he will
assume and appropriate that state of consciousness which he desires
to express; in so doing he will become that state in expression.
"Ye shall decree a
thing and it shall come to pass" can now be told in this manner:
You shall become conscious of being or possessing a thing and you shall
express or possess that which you are conscious of being.
The law of consciousness
is the only law of expression. "I AM the way.” "I AM
the resurrection.” Consciousness is the way as well as the power
that resurrects and expresses all that man will ever be conscious of
being.
Turn from the blindness
of the uninitiated man who attempts to express and possess those qualities
and things, which he is not conscious of being and possessing; and be
as the illumined mystic who decrees on the basis of this changeless
law. Consciously claim yourself to be that which you seek; appropriate
the consciousness of that which you seek; and you too will know the
status of the true mystic, as follows:
I became conscious of being
it. I am still conscious of being it. And I shall continue to be conscious
of being it until that which I am conscious of being is perfectly expressed.
Yes, I shall decree a thing
and it shall come to pass.
List
of Conscious Teachers
Osho
“The Book of Nothing”
The reality is always there,
waiting just near your heart, near your eyes, near your hands. You can
touch it, you can feel it, you can live it – but you cannot think
it. Seeing is possible, feeling is possible, touching is possible, but
thinking is not possible.
Try to understand the nature
of thinking. Thinking is always about, it is never direct. You can see
the reality but you will have to think about it, and about
is the trap, because whenever you “think about” you have
moved away. “About” means indirect. “About”
means you will not see this flower here and now, you will think about
it, and the “about” will become a barrier. Through that
“about” you will never reach to this flower.
Seeing is direct, touching
is direct, thinking is indirect. That’s why thinking misses. A
lover can know the reality, even a dancer can know it, a singer can
feel it, but a thinker goes on missing it.
(Page 53)
Be joyful, grateful, whatsoever
you have. Whatsoever! Be ecstatic about it, and more opening. And more
falls upon you, you become capable of being given more blessings. One
who is not grateful will lose whatsoever he has. One who is grateful,
the whole existence helps him to grow more, because he is worthy and
he is realizing what he has got.
Be more loving, and more
love will come to you. Be more peaceful, and more peace will come to
you. Give more, and you will have more to give. Share, and your being
increases.
But you never give, you
never love, you never share. In fact you are not even aware that you
have got anything. You are simply waiting that something is going to
happen somewhere. It has already happened! Just look at it – you
carry the treasure. And, you never give because you don’t know
it has happened to you, and you don’t know that giving will become
a growth.
Unless you share you will
not receive more, because you don’t become capable of it. You
are not worthy of it. Demand, and you will lose; give and you will get.
(Page 146-147)
List
of Conscious Teachers
Jean Klein
“The Ease of Being”
The mind must come to a
state of silence, completely empty of fear, longing and all images.
This cannot be brought about by suppression, but by observing every
feeling and thought without qualification, condemnation, judgment, or
comparison. If unmotivated alertness is to operate the censor must disappear.
There must simply be a quiet looking at what composes the mind. In discovering
the facts just as they are, agitation is eliminated, the movement of
thoughts becomes slow and we can watch each thought, its cause and content
as it occurs. We become aware of every thought in its completeness and
in this totality become aware of every thought in its completeness and
in this totality there can be no conflict. Then only alertness remains,
only silence in which there is neither observer nor observed. So do
not force your mind. Just watch its various movements, as you would
look at flying birds. In this uncluttered looking, all your experiences
surface and unfold. For unmotivated seeing not only generates tremendous
energy but frees all tension, all the various layers of inhibitions.
You see the whole of yourself.
Observing everything with
full attention becomes a way of life, a return to your original and
natural meditative being.
(Page 28)
List
of Conscious Teachers
Eckhart
Tolle
“Practicing the Power of NOW”
The Nature
of Compassion
Having gone beyond the
mind-made opposites, you become like a deep lake. The outer situation
of your life, whatever happens there, is the surface of the lake. Sometimes
calm, sometimes windy and rough, according to the cycles and seasons.
Deep down, however, the lake is always undisturbed. You are the whole
lake, not just the surface, and you are in touch with your own depth,
which remains absolutely still.
You don’t resist
change by mentally clinging to any situation. Your inner peace does
not depend on it. You abide in Being – unchanging, timeless, deathless
– and you are no longer dependent for fulfillment of happiness
on the outer world of constantly fluctuating forms. You can enjoy them,
play with them, create new forms, appreciate the beauty of it all. But
there will be no need to attach yourself to any of it.
As long as you are unaware
of Being, the reality of other humans will elude you, because you have
not found your own. Your mind will like or dislike their form, which
is not just their body but includes their mind as well. True relationship
becomes possible only when there is an awareness of Being.
Coming from being, you
will perceive another person’s body and mind as just a screen,
as it were, behind which you can feel their true reality, as you feel
yours. So, when confronted with someone else’s suffering or unconscious
behavior, you stay present and in touch with Being and are thus able
to look beyond the form and feel the other person’s radiant and
pure Being through your own.
At the level of Being,
all suffering is recognized as an illusion. Suffering is due to identification
with form. Miracles of healing sometimes occur through this realization,
by awakening Being-consciousness in others- if they are ready.
Compassion is the awareness
of a deep bond between yourself and all creatures. Next time you say,
“I have nothing in common with this person,” remember that
you have a great deal in common: A few years from now – two years
or seventy years, it doesn’t make much difference – both
of you will have become rotting corpses, then piles of dust, then nothing
at all. This is a sobering and humbling realization that leaves little
room for pride.
Is this a negative thought?
No, it is a fact. Why close your eyes to it? In that sense, there is
total equality between you and every other creature.
(Pages 111-113)
List
of Conscious Teachers
Poonjaji
“The Truth Is”
To be happy you should
not expect anything. Have no expectations about reality, just Be Reality.
In sleep you are happy because you don’t expect anything from
anyone and you are left alone. When there are no expectations, this
is happiness. Do your work with no expectations for the results. They
are not in your hand. Someone else decides the result. Your dharma is
to perform activities which are needed to your standard and not to seek
results. This will give you happiness. Nobody can fulfill these expectations.
Even when people are old, their expectations are still young. So don’t
get involved in any kind of expectations.
(Page 361)
List of Conscious Teachers
Gangaji
“You Are That”
The projecting
power of mind produces the body of mind – mental body, emotional
body, physical body, and circumstantial body. By perceptive consensus,
these “bodies” are accepted as reality. Through Self-Inquiry
– Who am I? – the thought “I”, or personal
trance of reality conceived in the mental body, is revealed to be nonexistent.
It is experienced as real, yet it is realized to be unreal - as a play
or a movie is experienced as real, yet realized to be just
a play or movie.
Science has
shown that when physical phenomena are investigated very closely, they
are revealed to be not as they are perceived to be. Self-Inquiry is
spiritual investigation of what is perceived to be real – “me,”
“my story.” Spiritual investigation reveals perception of
an entity separate from the totality of consciousness to be false perception.
Spiritual investigation reveals Self as Limitless Being, in truth unbound
by any and all perceptions of bondage.
Circumstances
rely on physical, mental, and emotional bodies for their perceived existence.
How can circumstances be considered real when their components are recognized
to be essentially nonexistent?
Paradoxically,
in exquisite irony, by recognizing the essential unreality of what has
been perceived as reality, there is a momentous release of deep love
and compassion for all that is perceived!
By recognizing
that which is real as oneself, the experience of life
is totally altered. Altered not by the attempt to alter, but by surrender
to that unalterableness revealing itself in all guises of thought, emotion,
and circumstance. Altered not by the cultivation of love and compassion,
but by the discovery that what is revealed at the core radiates love
and compassion. Unimagined, unsentimental love is pulling one deeper
into its embrace through all experience.
The question,
“Who am I?” experienced directly, reveals the truth at the
core of all form – all mental form, all emotional form, all physical
form, and all circumstantial form. The core is eternally present, regardless
of body, regardless of experience. The core is the presence of Being,
radiating intelligence and joy of Itself.
(Pages 69-70)