Ali cravings are the mind

All cravings are the mind seeking salvation or fulfillment in external things and in the future as a substitute for the joy of Being. As long as I am my mind, I am those cravings, those needs, wants, attachments, and aversions, and apart from them there is no 'I' except as a mere possibility, an unfulfilled potential, a seed that has not yet sprouted. In that state, even my desire to become free or enlightened is just another craving for fulfillment or completion in the future. So don't seek to become free of desire or “achieve” enlightenment. Become present. Be there as the observer of the mind. Instead of quoting the Buddha, be the Buddha, be “the awakened one,” which is what the word buddha means.

Approaching death of the ego

Sometimes god gives our ego a new low. He redefines how much the ego should bend to humility. such an experience lightens the heart but leaves a memory and a mark.

I observe the same fear in people all around the world -- job related insecurity, old age and being single, divorced people who feel people with family are blessed, lonely people who resort to mindfulness and meditation. Happening all over the world. I attended a sangha meditation centre in Milwaukee and saw that a pediatrician was there, an old lawyer was there, a man who was about to get divorced was there, old women who are about to die were there, relative middle aged people who have gone through much sufferings were there.

Sometimes we don't understand why people dislike us -- but go deep inside them and it becomes clear the sufferings that they are going through and what it is which is making them hate us. when someone does something to you which you are not able to understand, it means there is something about you which you don't understand yourself. Why? because the same energy flows in them which is flowing in you. Everyone is behaving out of conditioning and therefore nobody is guilty. Yet nobody is innocent because they have a choice on how to use their energies. Wow -- such an awesome creation of God. He creates the world of opposites and gives a choice to souls.

Looking again at the back of the mind, there is nothing else other than the present moment all the time. memories is what makes the mind interfere. As UG Krishnamurthy says there is no way you can experience anything at all without the knowledge of it. The vicious cycle is such that Knowledge "enables" experiencer to experience and the experiences fortifies the knowledge. In the present moment there is no memory, no knowledge, no experience -- just beingness. Yet there is no word to describe the state. Buddha calls it emptyiness, Jesus called it the fullness of life. Yet they all describe the same thing.

Flying in an aeroplane

I was flying in air plane to a different city yesterday. Viewing the city from top from a few thousand feet, I got the mountain view perspective.

Each illuminated light below on earth represented a house or family. There were thousands and thousands of such lights. Some were stationary lights of houses and some were moving vehicles.

But the common thing was, each of those lights represented souls who are in pursuit. Some lights belong to corporations some belong to individual houses and people. Nevertheless all of them were in pursuit. Pursuit of more money, profits, better lifestyle, dealing with their own problems emotional, financial or intellectual. Trying to enjoy life meanwhile with various distractions like movies, drinks etc. Each one had their own attachments, and none of them were satisfied with whatever they had in the present moment.  They were all moving. Always on the move.

That's when I was aware that I too was one of those lights. Doing my own thing. Having my own attachments. I was one such light caught in my own pursuits.

I have decided to live a life free from all these things that make us human and earthlings. Every attachment is a pursuit.

Poise

"The struggle with the mind is an easy struggle if you are constantly vigilant, all of the time, doing always what you know you should do, not allowing the mind to become instinctive, not excusing the mind when it does become instinctive, not allowing the mind to justify, rationalize, excuse, become combative, but making the mind always remain poised, like a hummingbird over a flower, so that you begin to live in the eternal now, constantly, permanently. And then the within becomes natural to you, not something you hear about, study about, talk about, sing about, for you become open, awakened within."

Accepting things as they are

Off late, the fiery passion I had for spiritual progress has suddenly gone down, maybe due to the influence of the buddhist book which I read called "the zen mind, beginners mind".

Something about the book made me feel that even the desire for enlightenment must be given up. Life and it's expression is very simple but the mind makes us complicated. We must unlearn more in spirituality than learn. We must 'be' than do. We must enjoy the journey than imagining a future enlightenment which is yet to be attained. How can you become that when you are already that. Any idea of enlightenment is a self created principle, a projection of the mind. A deviation from the now.

All that's needed in Buddhist meditation is accept the fact that there is no goal,  because you are already that which you seek,  the search is always in the wrong way.
The desire has fallen down after reading this. To desire what? That which I am!? If I am seeking a state, then I would be in the mind in duality. The seer can never see himself, all he can do and must do is to be quiet and allow the infinity to express itself.

Aum

Be alive

When trying to solve a problem or reach a goal, act from the now and not from the mental patterns, the ego is like a CD, it plays what is recorded in past, there is no way it can change.

In the here and now have the goal of the action very clear & work towards it, but don't think of the result of achieving that goal. This is karma yoga.

An example: a soldier in the field launching a projectile towards a target should be focusing on getting the projectile angle right and acting from the now, if instead he thinks about the results such as he imagine the missile hitting the target, and he getting a medal from his president and so on he will mess it up. This is how many of us live life  everyday.

Acting in the now with the goal very clear is an expression of life, the use of will, in the now. It is an alive feeling. With the goal clearly in mind it is easy to concentrate on the same without getting distracted by thoughts which are linked. Getting constantly distracted is the main reason people fail in attaining their goals, the mind consumes us when we were distracted and there is no channelization of energy.

Experienced this first hand this Saturday !

Ganesh Chaturthi 2011

Ganesh Chaturthi 2011

Powerful Meditation

Last night there was a power cut at home & hence me and my wife went upstairs on the terrace for a walk. After some walk, she started listening to Music on her MP3 player while I sat cross legged on the terrace floor for a meditation.

- Took some 5 minutes for my mental and physical systems to cool down

- After that awareness was just in the present completely, the sound of the neighbourhood, the feel of the breeze, the honks of distant vehicles in the city, the sound of my own breath, walking sound of my wife, sound of the leaves, and there was no me, just perception. This might have continues for 10 minutes or so though I was not aware of the time.

- Then mind entered contemplation – to observe the observer of all the perceptions that were happening. This was when I observed the breath had come to standstill, i.e. the incoming and outgoing breath was neutralized to a very short in-out breath which almost became standstill. Was in this state for the next 5 minutes.

- The next moment I observe I was feeling my spine, I was feeling myself as in the observer, in the infinite super-conscious state. There was a mild light at the top of my head and also sound. Together there was a heaviness feeling in my head – as if all the activity was only in head and the body awareness was lost. I was just the head and spine – that how I felt. It was a beautiful state. Don’t know how long it lasted but i dont remember anything on the material plane during this state. No more sound of external world disturbed me or even came to my notice.

- Then my guru appeared in my meditation vision & he was cross-legged just like me. Then we spoke a few things which happened very fast. Next thing I remember is my wife calling me for dinner as power was back. I stayed in the same state for 5 mintes feeling completely refreshed, rejuvinated and full of energy.

Thanks to my guru for guiding me into such a wonderful meditation.

Life with Shum is good!

It takes a while to understand that the past or the future really doesn't exist. I was working on solving a complex problem today and at the same time practising Shum in my mind. I observe that the awareness moves into the various strata of mind such as vumtyeudi and there is a lot of intellectual aggression towards solving the problem. Then awareness briefly moved into la and lam states. Then into the uuu state and a lot of thoughts and concepts are interrelated. I wasn't able to solve the problem. Then it was lunchtime, and consciously took awareness into the laf state while gobbling rotis. Then all of a sudden out of nowhere, I intuitively found a solution for the problem which had kept my mind boggling for hours. When we are involved with the world and its ramifications it's easy to forget simple solutions to complex problems and there is a tendency to get carried away. Consciously bringing mind into focus into the laf state is the key to get solutions for those problems.

The more I practice Shum language the more I understand the importance of practising it. When things don't work your way awareness quickly switches to the future, which can be quickly detected through Shum.

Resounding words

 

Restarted reading Merging with Siva which had been disrupted for quite some time due to externalities.

These words from gurudeva have been resounding in my brain since last night.

“We on the spiritual path must work hard at keeping ourselves detached from friends, places, habits. Only then can we keep awareness free enough to travel uninhibitedly through the sublime, inner areas of the mind.”

‘Begin to feel that observation is one of your finest faculties, one that you most cherish. It is the first faculty of the awakening of your superconscious. Mentally say to yourself many times, "I have good observation. Therefore, I am superconscious."’

“That is superconsciousness, and that is very real. More real than a table, a chair, an automobile or a person sitting next to you is this feeling of being an intense sheath of energy right in the eternal moment, with no past, no future. This is superconsciousness.”

Being in the ‘here’ & ‘now’

 

I liked this beautiful learning from natha website

Reflect to the idea that:

a) If you really are HERE and NOW, this is truly ENOUGH to have EVERYTHING, and

b) Thus you will reach the power and capacity of discriminatory understanding to make the most harmonious thing right now. Therefore when “after that”(the future) will become NOW - if you truly assimilated this exercise - you will then be in the ideal state and you will be then (in the future) much more capable to make the most appropriate and the most harmonious actions, so that it will not be necessary to waste your time NOW to worry yourself about then (future).

5. Reflect over the fact that you can program wisely your future being a state the consciousness of HERE and NOW, because in this kind of state, “ then” becomes NOW.
Doing like this you will be fully HERE and NOW. Do these statements still appear paradoxical to you? It is normal in the beginning, but nevertheless continue to meditate upon them, because the OUNCE OF PRACTICE will reveal to you that they hide truths which could never be fully comprehended by the rational mind.

The full article is here (courtesy: natha.fi)

Karma

I am beginning to perceive an observation of the workings of karma amongst people. Karma can use oneself to be used as a channel to ‘pass-on’ or ‘return’ the karma of another individual. To give an example : Say Person X has angered someone in the past and as a result there is a pending karma. Person Y who is a good friend of X visits X over the weekend and they engage in a conversation. They discuss various topics in a random manner without thought of what to speak or what not. Person Y responds to X or says something to X which will cause X to be angry. The person X could have been you or me or anyone for that matter. In other words Karma can use anyone as a channel to affect another.

This is one of the reasons why yogis lived away from society in forests for practicing Yoga. This served two purposes

• Provided them a calm and peaceful environment for performing sadhana
• This way they ‘Avoided’ themselves of becoming a “channel for Karma” to affect another person or creature.

Being in the ‘here and now’

 

Nice article which explains how to bring the mind to the ‘here and now’

http://www.natha.fi/English/artikkeleita/hereandnow.htm

Oneness and its stages

 

I discovered this article on the web courtesy: enlightenment-online.com which describes various stages of enlightenment. This is in sync with what my guru says as well. The various states are as shown below. All info below is directly from enlightenment-online.com

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Stages of Enlightenment

The Witness state--

1.  No more inner conflict.  You witness the mind and thoughts for what they are and experience the world as it is.  You live moment to moment in the present.
2.  Includes stage 1, but with an ever present feeling of joy.
3.  Includes 1 and 2, but with a great silencing of the mind.

The Oneness state--

4.  Includes the first 3, but with the permanent feeling of being connected to everything.  You no longer feel separate.
5.  All of the above but often, or at will, you feel you are the observer, the observed, and the observation.  You become the song you hear, the dance you dance, the tree you see, etc.
6.  All of the above but often, or at will, you expand into Cosmic Consciousness and encompass all of creation.  You feel you have become all of life.

God-Realization--

6 +.  Your Inner Dweller, Higher Self, the God Within, etc., (whatever name you want to call it) comes forth and is very present in your life. Your life is a constant flow of Divine guidance.

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I love the explanation of various voices of the ego within us in the below Video. The transcript is below:

Would you please clarify to us the meaning of oneness?

Answer: There are several degrees of oneness.

• Let us first look at oneness within oneself.

Right now you are not an individual. You are divided within, you are a crowd inside, you who is the son, friend, father of so n so, you are the friend employer or employee of so n so. There are so many beings within who are all the time talking.

Then again there is your conscious and your unconscious self, your authentic and your inauthentic self all having a dialogue all the time. You are the dialogue. When the dialogue shuts down you become all one inside. Alone means all one. There is no more division.

• At the next level you would find oneness with your fellow human beings.
• At the third level you would discover you are one with the earth the tree, the water and the sky, you are one with nature.
• You discover you and the universe are one.
• Ultimately you discover you and God are one. You would discover You are God. I intend to take you step by step to the final oneness.

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It is so very true that there are so many voices within us. As the power of observation becomes more and more better within ourselves we being to perceive these voices. They are constantly happening within us even now as we speak. These voice are what are responsible from keeping us away from our true self, peace of mind or the energy within.

Mind Map on Mind control

Thanks to Amit for pointing out this new software on Mind mapping and brainstorming. And I decide to use it to generate a mind map to control the mind itself ! Uploading version 1, will update it as and when i discover new methods from my gurudev.

click to enlarge

Related Posts : Experiencing Now with Nature , The Eternal Now state 

Experiencing "Now" with Nature

I have been unable to stay in the "now" for quite some time now, everything was in place, the purpose, the need, the plan etc -- but no execution. so i am where i am now today. 

Biggest barriers which have done their job well are are -- Bodily demands (such as sleep), subconscious thoughts, karma, bad habits, lack of focus, de-motivation, past failures etc etc. 

Was looking at beautiful nature snaps and it brought me back to the "now" atleast temporarily ...

Perceiving vs. Judging

There are a few people whom i have come across in my experiences of life -- who prefer perceiving to judgment. When someone comes to us with a problem or when life offers problems -- there are two classes of people classified based on how they respond to the circumstance

• Those who use the intellect and 'known' ways of man to tackle the issue. When the problem is being explained or showing up they go to the past/history to find out if they know how to solve it based on past experience.
  
• The creative souls, who look at the problem like a baby looking at the piece of plaything for the first time. They talk less inside them and outside to the world, they perceive and don't judge. The intellect is present but takes a back seat. Intuition takes the front seat.

The people who belong to the latter are the ones who can come out with creative - out-of-the-box solutions. They are not at majority in the society - but they do exist. People like Albert Einstein, Lalu Prasad Yadav are some examples.

Why Lalu Prasad Yadav? -- Well i was watching this show on TV sometime back -- "Kya Aap Panchvi Pass Se Tez Hain" hosted by Shahrukh Khan. Shahrukh is by default a very intellectual well read guy, and when he tends to do the show there is a lot of talking he does and quick witted responses from him to entertain people. But on the last day of the show -- Lalu was supposed to be on the hot seat. A sense of calm prevailed as soon as Lalu started answering Shahrukh's questions. It was like Shahrukh frames a question and explains it for like 2 minutes and Lalu answers it after a few seconds of pause in a short answer lasting less than 5 seconds. Lalu won around 50,00,000 Rupees from the show answering every answer correct. Its not by surprise that he has become the most preferred Railway minister and converted the industry into profit making machine from a loss making one. Various Top IIM institutes and B-schools today take Lalu's Railway management system as a case study in their MBA programs. Lalu according to me is a creative and evolved soul. One of those few fellows who has tuned himself to the river of life. He just really doesn't care if people make fun of him, he attends all the shows he is called to without a sense of superiority or ego and manages to win them and hearts of the people in his own style. He is an example of those rare folks who take life as it comes and face difficult experiences positively. My mom later told me that she has read somewhere that Lalu had once proclaimed to few of his friends and close associates that Lord Siva gave him His vision once. Whether this is true or not - but lalu definitely is an evolved soul from the point of view of my perception.

Another Lady who i know to have this sense of intuition / calmness of mind is Sai Mata of Nooliveedu Village -- a staunch devotee of Sathya Sai / Shirdi Sai Baba.

People who function in the intuitive states of mind, who live two thirds within are closer to the perfection, the lifes goal -- Self realization than those who are not.

Anantha Varthamanam - The eternal "Now"

What is the instant? That is what we have to discover through a moment of concentration. What is the moment? This brings awareness to the "Now"

Just as an example, how many times have you gone to the temple without being fully there? Part of you was there, part of you was living in the past, part of you was trying to live in the future; and there you were, emoting over the things that happened that should never have happened, and fearful of things that might happen in the future, which probably won't happen unless you continue being fearful of their happening until you create them!

Do you know that the ability to live right now, in the instant, is a spiritual power, reflecting the awakening of the soul and requiring a subconscious control of the mind? Your soul is never bothered with the things that disturb the rest of the mind! The mind lives in the past, and the mind tries to live in the future. But when you quiet your mind, you live in the present. You are living within your soul, or the higher state of your mind which is undisturbed by the things of time.


When you continue in the consciousness of the eternal now, something mysterious and wonderful begins to happen -- your soul, your superconscious, begins to work out your spiritual destiny. When you quiet your mind, and only when you quiet your mind, you give your soul a chance. What difference does it make if you do have problems? They will work themselves out if you can keep the confusion of your lower states of mind out of the way.


When you find yourself with your mind calmed, your future automatically works itself out. It takes the average person some time before he can bring his entire mind and all his actions into the focus of the eternal now. Just hearing about it is not going to give you a birth into that state of consciousness. You will have to struggle and strive to hold the eternal now. It will take constant practice of spiritual principles to permeate the grosser layers of the mind with the clarity of the eternal now.


The Practice


As the first attempt in finding the infinite reality of the eternity of the moment, sit quietly, draw all of your faculties into the center of your head and try to see the glowing white light there. When this light is seen, a high-pitched sound might also be heard, and you are then in the eternity of the moment. Bringing oneself to the repetition of this practice successfully and systematically, day after day, month after month, year after year is the yoga to be practiced to merge awareness deeper and deeper into superconsciousness.

Below is a beautiful poem (Courtesy : http://busker.net/text/lyrics/collectedlyric.htm) describing the eternal now from Buddhism

all is one
joy is to be sung
life has just begun
in eternal now

for eternal now lies in between each thought
but the ego lays its' traps and we are caught
held in its web of suffering
and the only way to freedom is within eternal now

So love while you can
every child of man
life is not - 'I am'
in eternal now


So love while you may
all that comes your way
life is for today
in eternal now


but thanks can be given
till this world is riven
life is just for living
in eternal now

Awareness and Consciousness

Consciousness and awareness are the same when awareness is totally identified with and attached to that which it is aware of. To separate the two is the artful practice of yoga.

How to strike the balance between living 2/3rd internally in our day to day life and 1/3rd externally? Regulate the breath throughout the day. Keep the spine always straight. Always sit up straight. As soon as the spine is bent, awareness is externalized. We are living two-thirds in the external area of the mind and only one-third within. As soon as the spine is straight, our awareness is internalized. We are living two-thirds within and only one-third out.

This is what differentiates a normal man from a mystic, a mystic lives 2/3rd within.

Now, if we are sitting in a movie, and we are realizing that we are going through moods and emotions but we are not the moods and emotions that we are going through -- all we are doing is being entertained by our senses -- then that's the mystic. He is enjoying life and what life has to offer. He is even remembering in past lives when he had similar experiences that the players are portraying on the screen, and he has empathy with them. He is living a full and a vibrant life, and yet when he walks out of the movie house, or walks away from the TV, he has forgotten the whole thing. He doesn't carry it with him. His awareness is immediately right where he is currently. That's the power of the great eternity of the moment.

It will help for us to make a mental picture. Let us now try to visualize awareness as a round, white ball of light, like one single eye. This ball is being propelled through many areas of the mind, inner and outer, and it is registering all the various pictures. It has, in fact, four eyes, one on each side of it. It is not reacting. The reaction comes when awareness is aware of the astral body and the physical body. It is in those bodies that reaction occurs. We are aware of the reactions in these bodies, for the physical body and the astral body are also part of the vast, vast universe of the mind.

Experiences

The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science.
-Albert Einstein

Everything thats happening around you, you have no control over it .... what has to happen will happen, there is nothing you can do about it. when you accept the fact that there is nothing you can do about it .... the energy spent in thinking is stopped .... and a calm sets in ..... The mind always seeks greener pastures and seeks novelty all the time, when you accept the fact there is nothing you can do about it .... suddenly a calm sets in ..... and you are living in the "now". So the mind really cant do anything, it is primitive and has the same fears, same passions, same dispassions. The mind has to be completely given up for grace to flow.
- Bhagwan (Nemam)

It is karma that keeps us from knowing of and reaching life's final goal, yet it is wrong to even call it a goal. It is what is known by the knower to have always existed. It is not a matter of becoming the Self, but of realizing that you never were not the Self. And what is that Self? It is Parasiva. It is God. It is That which is beyond the mind, beyond thought, feeling and emotion, beyond time, form and space. That is what all men are seeking, looking for, longing for. When karma is controlled through yoga and dharma well performed, and the energies are transmuted to their ultimate state, the Vedic Truth of life discovered by the rishis so long ago becomes obvious.

That goal is to realize God Siva in His absolute, or transcendent, state, which when realized is your own ultimate state -- timeless, formless, spaceless Truth. That Truth lies beyond the thinking mind, beyond the feeling nature, beyond action or any movement of the vrittis, the waves of the mind. Being, seeing, this Truth then gives the correct perspective, brings the external realities into perspective. They then are seen as truly unrealities, yet not discarded as such.

Jivana Nadi (The River of Life)

Four important things i learnt from my guru during my pilgrimage trip to Tiruvannamalai (see here to know why the place is so great for Hindus), can be summarized as :-

* Practicing Affectionate Detachment.
* Clearing the Subconscious Basement.
* Being like the River water.
* What does it mean when people say "Nobody Understands me".

Practicing Affectionate Detachment

Affectionate detachment is stronger than any attachment could possibly be, because attachment is created through unfulfilled desire, salted and peppered with fear. Fear of loss, fear of the unexpected, fear that life may not have much more to offer than what has already been offered, fear of old age, fear of harm, fear of accident -- these are the fears which salt and pepper the unfulfilled desires. This is attachment.

To be affectionately detached -- that is a power. That is a wisdom. That is a love greater than any emotional love, a love born of understanding, a love that merges you into the river of life and allows actinic force to flow within you so that you realize God.

There is a great wisdom in cultivated affectionate detachment. Let go of the past. Let go of the future. Be a being right now. Being detached does not mean running away from life or being insensitive. It makes us extremely sensitive. When we have the ability to let go, we are warmer, more friendly, more wholesome, more human and closer to our family and friends.



Subconscious Basement

I liken the subconscious mind to a basement. Those of you who have lived in the same house for a number of years have observed the following: as life progresses in the home, old things make way for the new, and the old things invariably are put into the basement. The basement is likened to the subconscious mind; the main floor, to the conscious mind. If one is putting too many things too fast into the basement and is too busy enjoying the new things passing through the conscious mind into the subconscious basement, there is no time to keep the basement in order.

You can plainly see that we have to go into the subconscious basement and straighten it out, if need be, by letting go and becoming free. That's easy to say. It's a little more difficult to do. Why? Because the basement took time to fill, and it takes time to clean. If we were to straighten out the subconscious basement too fast, that would not be good. It would be going against a natural law. It would be like pouring hot water on plants, as they do commercially, to make them bloom quickly. We must not force natural laws, so we take time in our spiritual unfoldment. The more time you are willing to take, the less pressure you have on yourself and the faster you will attain a permanent enlightenment.

"Nobody Understands Me"

In practicing affectionate detachment, we are learning to live in the here and now, right in the moment. We are awakening the power of direct cognition, the power that enables us to understand what happens, when it happens and why it happens.We are tuning into the river of life, the great actinic flow. This river flows directly from the essence of being through the subconscious basement and the conscious-mind main floor, creating life's experiences. Along the way, our cognition of these experiences completes the cycle of its continual flow. That is what we have to learn to tune into. All of our higher teachings give us that wisdom. It is a great step to learn it intellectually and to be able to talk about it, but once that step has been taken, it is not a great step anymore.

This wisdom must first be applied at home, then at work. Then it has to be applied among all of your acquaintances and friends. Everyone should understand you and about you, and if you feel there is someone close to you who does not understand you, that signifies that the part of yourself that this person represents does not understand what you think they do not understand. If someone who is close to you does not understand your inner nature, you do not understand your inner subconscious yourself. Why? Because you have only intellectually grasped certain things; you have not fully realized these concepts. He, the friend, as a reflection of yourself, therefore, will not quite grasp your studies or your concepts. As soon as you understand yourself, by having purified yourself, you can explain your realization to your friends in a way they will understand.

Those who say "Well, nobody understands me. I feel all alone on the path" are going through a period in which they have memorized everything but understand very little and therefore cannot explain or convince their fellow man of these great truths due to the fact that their subconscious basement is still full. When we only learn intellectually and have not put dharma into practice, our subconscious is still cluttered by uncognized memories.



Being like the River Water

Let's look again at the river of life as it flows into the sea, and again relate that to ourselves and see ourselves letting go of the river banks, merging ourselves into this river, flowing with it and realizing ourselves as the essence of life. Let us not worry about the past ever again. Do not even think about the past. Face everything that comes up in the light of the present, not in the darkness of the past.



Be like the river water. Water flows freely anywhere, easily finding its way around rocks and trees. Be pliable in your life, moving in rhythm with life. Let go of everything that blocks the river of life's energy. Watch your thinking and be careful of your thoughts. Judge every action that you make, judge every word you speak, with this law: "Is it true? Is it kind? Is it helpful? Is it necessary?" Become your own kind judge and make each second a day of judgment, for each second is really a day if you live life fully. If you live completely each second, you will experience many days inside each twenty-four hours.

Be free from life's attachments and don't allow any more negative attachments to occur in your life. Loosen yourself -- be free. Attachments bring all sorts of complications. Freedom brings no complications at all. So, that is what we have to do, recreate our lives each second. Become affectionately detached and manifest a greater love through action. Selfless service to mankind makes you free in the world of mortals. Measure yourself objectively with the river of life and merge with it into the sea of life. Let your service to mankind begin at home and radiate out to the world. Begin at home, with those closest to you, before venturing out among friends and strangers. Let your example be your first teaching. Be free from the past; abide in the present; detach yourself from the future; and live in the eternal now.

Close your eyes and visualize a river flowing into the sea, and see yourself holding on to the bank of the river, and the river flowing on past you. Now let go of the bank of the river and flow down with the river and merge into the sea of life. Feel yourself, right at this instant, living in the here and now. Holding on to the river bank, we hold the consciousness of time and space. Holding on to the banks of the river of life is to recreate within you fear, worry, doubt, anxiety and nervousness. Detach yourself from the banks of the river and again be free. Love the banks as you pass, with a love born of understanding, and if you have no understanding of the bank, study your attachments until you do.


Learn to concentrate the mind so that you can study not from books, but from observation, which is the first awakening of the soul. Learn to study by practice. Learn to study by application. Become a student of life and live life fully, and as you merge into the sea of actinic life, you will realize that you are not your mind, your body or your emotions. You will realize that you are the complete master of your mind, your body and your emotions.