Being your true self, being your true nature, is different than experiencing it with thought.

Realize that you are the mystery, and that you can’t really look at the mystery because you are only capable of looking ‘from’ the mystery.

There is a very awake, alive, and loving mystery, and that’s what is seeing through your eyes at this moment. That’s what is hearing through your ears at this moment. Instead of trying to figure it all out, which is impossible, I suggest you ask, “What’s ultimately behind this set of eyes?”

Turn around to see what is looking. Encounter pure mystery, which is pure spirit, and wake up to what you are.

~ From: Emptiness Dancing, by Adyashanti. www.adyashanti.org

The Life of flowers (????? ??????) from VOROBYOFF PRODUCTION on Vimeo.

The Buddha also suggested: “Realize the utterly transitory nature of the universe and all causal phenomena.

Having realized that, one would be prepared to face change, however drastic. That would lead one away from fear, to a mindset that is without any waves of disturbance.”

A correlated concept can be very helpful: to be able to accept that, while one can only do, in any given situation, whatever one thinks one should do, any expectation of the result could only lead to frustration.

The fact of the matter is that everything is pre-determined — pleasure or pain, success or failure. One can only do what one thinks one should do. This also leads to equanimity.

~ From: Nuggets of Wisdom, by Ramesh Balsekar. http://www.rameshbalsekar.com/

There is considerable confusion about the state of equanimity: Is it to be attained, or is it the result of total acceptance of a particular concept? In other words, is it a great virtue to be cultivated as a prerequisite to attaining the state of jivanmukta, a realized being? Or, is it the natural culmination of the total acceptance of the two basic concepts, both clearly enunciated by the Buddha?

The total acceptance of the concept of non-doership brings about the end of suffering. As the Buddha stated: “Events happen, deeds are done; but there is no individual doer of any deed.” In other words, everything is a happening according to God’s Will or Cosmic Law, and not anyone’s individual action.

How each happening affects whom depends on the destiny of the individual who is affected by the happening. The total acceptance of non-doership means the end of the load of guilt and shame for one’s own actions and the load of hatred and malice towards the other for his actions.

The removal of the load means the automatic presence of peace and harmony — equanimity.

~ From: Nuggets of Wisdom, by Ramesh Balsekar. http://www.rameshbalsekar.com/

The amount of time and effort the human being has spent on seeking a perfect society is horrendous. It can only lead to frustration.

We cannot forget that it is the mind that has projected the idea of a perfect state and tries to bring it about. So, when perfection, reform, is to be brought about, there is cruelty, liquidation, concentration camps, tyranny.

If I want to create a perfect state, then I not only compel myself to live according to a certain concept, I must also compel others to live according to that pattern. Seeking perfection is the most selfish, materialistic form of achievement.

The more realistic search would be to find what is real, what is true, what is God, what is the Source who has brought about the world we live in. And then, we can only leave the world in the care of the Source from which the world emanated. Nisargadatta Maharaj said: “A man who claims to know what is good for others, is dangerous”

~ From: Nuggets of Wisdom, by Ramesh Balsekar. http://www.rameshbalsekar.com/

A positive word like ‘detachment’ can cause considerable confusion. A sage has his family; his daily work to earn a living. A sage certainly enjoys his pleasure; in fact, he is called a Mahabhogi — super-enjoyer. How can the word ‘detached’ be applied to a sage? In fact that is how a sage is always to be remembered: because of his detachment.

What is actually meant is that a sage is not attached to anything in life. He is not attached to his own life; he is ready to die at any moment. This means he is not attached to life and living. In this context the word ‘detached’ would indeed indicate that the sage lives like a zombie. This is certainly not the case.

The sage is certainly a Mahabhogi: He does not dilute his sense of enjoyment with a lot of unnecessary thinking about the enjoyment. But he is not attached to the pleasure: if the pleasure does not happen he does not pursue it.

‘Detachment’ is better described as not being ‘attached’. Negation means freedom.

~ From: Nuggets of Wisdom, by Ramesh Balsekar. http://www.rameshbalsekar.com/

In the words of Zen, awakening is wu-shih, nothing special. The liberated sage has to live his life as a separate entity more or less in the same circumstances as before, suffers the same pain in the moment, as does the ordinary person, and enjoys the same pleasures. Nothing special.

The only difference is that while he faces life, like anyone else, from moment to whatever the moment brings, he or she is always at peace with himself and in harmony with the ‘other’.

This is because he or she has been able to accept totally that everything is a happening according the Cosmic Law, and not any deed done by any individual entity.

Thus whatever the happening, he or she does not blame anyone for it — neither himself or herself nor the ‘other’. Therefore, no guilt or shame no pride and arrogance about his or her own apparent actions; and no hatred or malice towards any ‘other’ for any of his or her actions.

~ From: Nuggets of Wisdom, by Ramesh Balsekar. http://www.rameshbalsekar.com/

Man’s normal way of thinking and perceiving is far from being ‘normal’ in the sense that we have almost forgotten to see anything in the world directly. We are unable to see things in their ‘suchness’, ‘as they are’ — the direct seeing of Zen — because the habit of symbolic thinking has become so ingrained in us.

We forget that a symbol is a mere representation, and mistake it for reality. We see something, a rose, as a symbol, and forget to see a rose as an independent reality, in its virgin beauty.

Therefore, our knowledge, our perception has become utterly inferential or verbalized, dualistic. ‘Direct’ or ‘non-dual’ knowledge has become a forgotten thing. It so happens knowledge or perception of truth or reality is of this other nature — what Eddington calls “an intimate knowledge of the reality behind the symbols of science”.

This non-dual awareness is also known as ‘apperception’ — a type of knowing wherein the knower, the known and the knowing are one inseparable process. In other words, the fundamental nature of all phenomena is the apperceiving of it.

~ From: Nuggets of Wisdom, by Ramesh Balsekar. http://www.rameshbalsekar.com/