Self-realization

Thanks for the great thread!

Self-realisation is beyond the mind. The image in the mirror is of the face (in front of) the mirror. You can see both the image and the mirror. You are neither. Who are you?
Like standing between two mirrors and wondering at the crowd! You alone and the double mirror are there. Between the two, your forms and names are numberless (being this or that) looking in the mirror. Look from the mirror.
-Shri Nisargadatta Maharaj-
(edited)

Glad some have the eyes to see ...

I am only the Self - Nisargadatta Maharaj - short version complete

[youtube] [link to www.youtube.com (secure)]

This is an abbreviated version of the documentary on Nisargadatta Maharaj 'Awaken to the Eternal'. The commentaries of his students have been edited out to create a pure 'Maharaj experience'.

There's nothing material in this life on Earth that anyone can take with them after they pass away. People are born with no material possessions and will leave with no material possessions.

Exactly.

The only possession you actually have is the consciousness, and it comes and goes daily as well. Search for the source of Consciousness.

It is good stuff if your on the path but once you come back to earth with a family it's hard not to see what's wrong with society and it's this simple families first as we all come from families then when you grow up do whatever the fuck you want. I would like to get into wildlife conservation if you hear off any jobs going gimme a shout, thanks.

In reality you are not a (single) thing, nor separate. You are the infinite potentiality; the inexhaustible possibility. Because you are (present), all can be (here and now). The universe is but a partial manifestation of your limitless capacity to become. All life on earth depends on the sun. Yet you cannot blame the sun for all that happens, though it (its presence) is the ultimate cause. Light causes the color of the flower, but it (witness) neither controls, nor is responsible for it. It makes it possible.

Q: The urge to return to the source is very rare. Is it at all natural? M: Outgoing is natural in the beginning, ingoing - in the end. Consciousness is pure in the beginning and pure in the end (awareness of mere being); in between it gets contaminated by (awareness of being this or that, no awareness of mere being). But in reality the two are one, just like breathing in and out are one (life). It is the real that creates the urge; the inner prompts the outer and the outer responds (to inner) in interest and effort. But ultimately (in reality) there is no inner, nor outer.

To be a living being („I am“) is not the ultimate state; there is something beyond, much more wonderful, which is neither being nor not-being, neither living nor not living. It is a state of awareness, beyond the limitations of space and time. The same source of the will (desire) to live, a source deeper even than life itself . The 'I' is there even without the 'am'.

-Shri Nisargadatta Maharaj-
(edited)

[link to www.youtube.com (secure)]



[link to www.youtube.com (secure)]

Some videos I have found informative along the path.















An easy way to meditate and see benefits quickly. You can do it.

snip
"No one can pass the gateless gate. So be no one."

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How can we use words and images to convey stillness? How can we convey silence by making noise?

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St. Francis of Assisi said "what you are looking for is what is looking."

Enquire what is permanent in the transient, real in the unreal.

Q: The fact is that here and now I am asking you: when did the feeling 'I am the body' arise? At my birth? or this morning? M: Now. Q: But I remember having it yesterday too! M: The memory of yesterday is now only (= uvedomovanie seba). Q: But surely I exist in time. I have a past and a future. M: That is how you conceptualise - now. Q: There must have been a beginning. M: Now. Q: And what about ending? M: What has no beginning cannot end.

-Shri Nisargadatta Maharaj-
(edited)

Forgetting your (very) presence is the greatest injury; all the calamities flow from it (addictions). Dwell on the presence, think of it, learn to accept its reality (awareness). Don't oppose and deny (separate) all the time. Keep an open mind at least. Yoga is bending the outer to the inner.

By doing you succeed, not by arguing. You do not tidy up a dark room. You open the windows first, by letting in the light (awareness one´s being). So, let us wait with improving others (a dark room) until we have seen ourselves as we are.

There is no need to turn round and round in endless questioning; find yourself and everything (in the world) will fall into its proper place.

The description and causation are the remedy for a disease caused by obtuseness and stupidity. Just like a deficiency disease is cured through the supply of the missing factor, so are the desires cured by a good dose of intelligent detachment.

-Shri Nisargadatta Maharaj-
(edited)

In the reflection by a separate existence the unlimited and the limited (reflection) are confused and taken to be the same. To undo this confusion is the purpose of Yoga.
Q: Does not death undo this confusion?
M: In death only the body dies. But in reality nothing happened. The sun is always there, there is no night to it; the presence blinded by the 'I am the body' idea spins out endlessly its thread of illusion.

You are the Supreme Reality! But what of it? A mere verbal statement will not do - you may repeat a formula endlessly without any result whatsoever. Discover all you are not. Body, feelings, thoughts, ideas, time, space, being and not-being, this or that - nothing concrete or abstract you can point out to is you. What you need for salvation is already within your reach (awareness of being). You are what you have always been, timelessly, but of what use is it to you unless you know it and act on it in action? You must watch yourself continuously - particularly your mind - moment by moment, missing nothing. This witnessing is essential for the separation of your presence from the not-self. Remember, you cannot abandon what you do not know. To go beyond yourself, you must know yourself.
-Shri Nisargadatta Maharaj-
(edited)

Q: But since all exists by your light, are you not the creator of the world?
M: I am neither the potentiality nor the actualization, nor the actuality of things. In light (of consciousness) the specks of dust dancing in the sunbeam come and go. The light illumines the specks, but does not depend on them. Nor can it be said to create them. It cannot be even said to know them.
-Shri Nisargadatta Maharaj-

True surrender is accomplished by going back to your source and discovering that there is no one to surrender and nothing to surrender.
-Papaji-

There is no such thing as a Self-realized person. When there is no “person” the Self is realized. When there is no “person” the question of coming and going cannot arise.
-Papaji-

We use soap to clean but then rinse it away as well. We use a thorn to remove a thorn and then disregard both.

The waking man will say he did not know anything while he was in the state of deep sleep. Awake he sees objects and believes that he exists, but in deep sleep there were neither objects nor a spectator. And yet the same one who is saying this existed in deep sleep also. What is the difference between the two states? There seem to be objects and the play of the senses and memory now, while in deep sleep there is none of this.

Upon awakening from deep sleep a new entity that was not there, the ego, arises. It seems to act through the senses, sees objects, confuses itself with the body, believes it has a memory and claims to be the self. In reality, what was in deep sleep continues to be now also. This Self is changeless. It is the ego that comes and goes. What rises and sets is the mind. That which remains changeless is Self.

The Self cannot be known in sleep until it is first realized in the waking state, for our true nature underlies all of the three states. Effort is called for in the waking state to realize the Self here and now. In that realization will the continuous Self also be known uninterrupted by the alternation of waking, dream and deep sleep.

One term for the true state of realization is the ‘Fourth State,’ existing eternally beyond the three states of waking, dreaming and deep sleep. It is compared with the state of deep sleep since, similarly, it is formless and non-dual; however, it is far from being the same. In the Fourth State the mind merges into Consciousness, in deep sleep it merges into unconsciousness.

- Shri Ramana Maharshi-

You will not raise questions in a little while when you fall into deep sleep. Why? Are you a different person now from the one you are when asleep? No, you are not. Find out why questions do not occur to you when you are asleep.
- Shri Ramana Maharshi -

Effortless and choice-less awareness is our real nature. If we can attain that state and abide, that is all right. But one cannot reach it without effort, the effort of deliberation or meditation, whether it be upon Self inquiry, surrender or both. All the age-old vasanas (inherent tendencies) turn the mind outward to external objects. All such thoughts must be given up, the mind turned inwards. That, for most people, requires effort. Every teacher and every scripture tells the aspirant to keep quiet, but it is not so easy to do.
- Shri Ramana Maharshi -

As you are, so is the world. Without understanding yourself, what is the use of trying to understand the world? Seekers after Truth do not need to worry about what the world is or isn’t. People waste their time and energy over such questions. First find out the Truth behind what you believe is yourself, then you will be in a better position to understand the Truth behind what you believe is the world.
- Shri Ramana Maharshi -

Lord Jesus said "deny yourself...."

It's about Jesus realization!

... the oneness with the Father.


At some time a man grows dissatisfied with his life and, not content with what he has, seeks the satisfaction of his desires through prayer to God. His mind is gradually purified until he longs to know God, more to obtain His Grace than to satisfy worldly desires. Then God’s grace begins to manifest. God takes the form of a Guru and appears to the devotee, teaches him the Truth and, moreover, purifies his mind by association with him. The devotee’s mind thus gains strength and is then able to turn inward. By meditation it is further purified until it remains calm without the least ripple. That calm Expanse is the Self.

Who would object to having a seemingly separate God to worship so long as he needs one? Through devotion he will develop until he comes to feel that God alone exists, and that he himself does not count. He comes to a stage when he says; ‘Not I but Thou; not my will, but Thy Will.’ When that stage is reached, which is called complete surrender in bhakti marga, one discovers in the effacement of the ego the attainment of the Self. We need not quarrel whether there are two entities or one.

discover for yourself whether the one Self alone exists or whether there are two.

Whatever may be needed to suit the different capacities and stages of different men, the truth is that the state of Self-realization must be beyond the triad of knower, knowledge and known. The Self is the Self; that is all that can be said of it.

- Shri Ramana Maharshi -

[link to www.spiritawake.net (secure)]

No one can see their reflection in running water.
It is only in still water that we can see clearly.
— Taoist proverb
Water becomes clear through stillness.
How can I become still?
By flowing with the stream.
- Lao-tze, Founder of Taoism


Whatever is manifested before you has come out of the consciousness. From true awareness comes consciousness which is your feeling I am. I-am is the consciousness through which comes the world. Behind that is awareness.
Be one with your consciousness and that is all that you can do. The ultimate state must come to you. You can only watch (your self), there is nothing you can do to get it.
-Shri Nisargadatta Maharaj-