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Gurbani (489-503)
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Gurbani (696-703)
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ਰਾਗੁ ਟੋਡੀ | Raag Todee
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Gurbani (721-727)
Bhagat Bani (727)
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Gurbani (728-750)
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Gurbani (795-831)
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Chhant (843-848)
Vaar Bilaaval (849-855)
Bhagat Bani (855-858)
ਰਾਗੁ ਗੋਂਡ | Raag Gond
Gurbani (859-869)
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ਰਾਗੁ ਰਾਮਕਲੀ | Raag Ramkalee
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Sidh Gosat (938-946)
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ਰਾਗੁ ਨਟ ਨਾਰਾਇਨ | Raag Nat Narayan
Gurbani (975-980)
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ਰਾਗੁ ਮਾਲੀ ਗਉੜਾ | Raag Maalee Gauraa
Gurbani (984-988)
Bhagat Bani (988)
ਰਾਗੁ ਮਾਰੂ | Raag Maaroo
Gurbani (889-1008)
Ashtpadiyan (1008-1014)
Kaafee (1014-1016)
Ashtpadiyan (1016-1019)
Anjulian (1019-1020)
Solhe (1020-1033)
Dakhni (1033-1043)
ਰਾਗੁ ਤੁਖਾਰੀ | Raag Tukhaari
Bara Maha (1107-1110)
Chhant (1110-1117)
ਰਾਗੁ ਕੇਦਾਰਾ | Raag Kedara
Gurbani (1118-1123)
Bhagat Bani (1123-1124)
ਰਾਗੁ ਭੈਰਉ | Raag Bhairo
Gurbani (1125-1152)
Partaal (1153)
Ashtpadiyan (1153-1167)
ਰਾਗੁ ਬਸੰਤੁ | Raag Basant
Gurbani (1168-1187)
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Vaar Basant (1193-1196)
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Gurbani (1197-1200)
Partaal (1200-1231)
Ashtpadiyan (1232-1236)
Chhant (1236-1237)
Vaar Saarang (1237-1253)
ਰਾਗੁ ਮਲਾਰ | Raag Malaar
Gurbani (1254-1293)
Partaal (1265-1273)
Ashtpadiyan (1273-1278)
Chhant (1278)
Vaar Malaar (1278-91)
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ਰਾਗੁ ਕਾਨੜਾ | Raag Kaanraa
Gurbani (1294-96)
Partaal (1296-1318)
Ashtpadiyan (1308-1312)
Chhant (1312)
Vaar Kaanraa
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ਰਾਗੁ ਪ੍ਰਭਾਤੀ | Raag Prabhaatee
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ਰਾਗੁ ਜੈਜਾਵੰਤੀ | Raag Jaijaiwanti
Gurbani (1352-53)
Salok | Gatha | Phunahe | Chaubole | Swayiye
Sehskritee Mahala 1
Sehskritee Mahala 5
Gaathaa Mahala 5
Phunhay Mahala 5
Chaubolae Mahala 5
Shaloks Bhagat Kabir
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Swaiyyae Mahala 5
Swaiyyae in Praise of Gurus
Shaloks in Addition To Vaars
Shalok Ninth Mehl
Mundavanee Mehl 5
ਰਾਗ ਮਾਲਾ, Raag Maalaa
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Wonderful Excerpts Of SPN Member Confused Ji's Post
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<blockquote data-quote="Archived_member15" data-source="post: 168114" data-attributes="member: 17438"><p>Dear brother/sister Confused ji kaurhug</p><p> </p><p>I know that this was directed to brother Harry, nonetheless I was intrigued by your thoughts and would like to deepen my understanding of what you are trying to communicate. </p><p> </p><p>We should not bring viewpoints and opinions shaped by personalistic beliefs about reality into this discussion. The Way of Things is the Way of Things, regardless of our finite understandings. Rather we should aim to seek for the truth at the heart of things. We should all aim to uncover what <em>is </em>rather than what we would <em>like </em>it to be. So I am not going to offer you "opinions", to the best of my ability, but rather a genuine explanation of how reality <em>is </em>as far as I can discern it. </p><p> </p><p>My thoughts are a bit convoluted at the minute and long-winded, so I hope you are not bored by the length. </p><p> </p><p>If you can give your opinions and critique of my thoughts, I would much appreciate it. </p><p> </p><p>Read this: </p><p> </p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">"...Do not compute eternity</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">as light-year after year</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">One step across that line called Time: </span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">Eternity is here</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">How fleeting is this world</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">yet it survives. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">It is ourselves that fade from it</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">and our ephemeral lives. </span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">Were I to lose myself in the God</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">I'd find again the Ground</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">that held and nurtured me</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">before this earthly round</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">I have known wealth and fame</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">poverty and utter shame</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">Yet all was transitory</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">Beyond time I found bliss and glory</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">Timelessness</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">Is so much a part of you, of me - </span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">We cannot hope to find</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">the Ground</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">until aware of our eternity </span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">Time is of your own making, </span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">its clock ticks in your head. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">The moment you stop thought</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">time too stops dead. </span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">Just one step out of time </span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">I enter God's eternity</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">and I am wholly freed</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">from human transciency </span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">Until you lose your Me</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">you cannot see God's face -</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">The moment you recover it </span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">you fall from grace</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">How short our span! </span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">If you once realized how brief, </span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">you would refrain </span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">from causing any beast or man</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">the smallest grief, the slightest pain. </span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">I am God's alter ego</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">He is my counterpart </span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">In timelessness we merge - </span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">in time we seem apart </span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">Most sacred: </span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">The Void's immobility</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">that makes all move, </span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">retaining its tranquility. </span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">He has not lived in vain</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">who learns to be unruffled</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">by loss, by gain, </span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">by, joy, by pain.</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">You are not real, Death, </span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">for I die every minute</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">and am reborn in the next</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">into life infinite</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">The sage does not fear death. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">To often has he died</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">to ego and its vanities, </span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">to all that keeps man tied. </span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">At the end of that </span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">which we call history</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">God is who IS: </span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">for Him there is no past</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">nor future yet to be..."</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><em>- Angelus Silesius (1624 – 1677), Catholic mystic</em></strong> </span></p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Does not this Catholic mystic hit upon the very same truth that you have? He says that Time is an illusion created by conditioned mind. Step over the line, through the present moment, and find eternity and Immeasurable Being in the here and now. And yet he is a Catholic who does not believe in either karma or reincarnation - and that is my contention, these concepts are not necessary to the truth you have touched upon, which is universal, whereas karma and reincarnation are particular metaphysical concepts born of a specific culture just like the ideas of eternal life, heaven or hell. </p><p> </p><p>My understanding - and I am only 20 so I am open to new developments - is that reality is in a continual state of emptying. The way I would compare it is to rivers coming out from a sea and returning back again in one unending cycle of outflowing and back-flowing. This flowing forth from the unconditioned Absolute which I call "God" - which is a negation of all negation - is continual and simultaneous. The purpose, as I see it, of human life is to be the mediator or instrument through which that which comes from the unconditioned Absolute can return to the unconditioned Absolute. The whole of spiritual life can thus be viewed as one massive cosmic heart-beat, in-flowing and out-flowing continually, a movement of expansion and contraction which is happening in every moment. </p><p> </p><p>This is the insight which impermanence brings. </p><p> </p><p>Everything is in a state of <em>becoming </em>within time, emptying upon emptying. Once the idea of permanence is cast aside, we are free to experience divine reality in each moment as it arrives and falls away, that out-flowing and back-flowing I explained earlier. Everything is like breath, a chasing after the wind. </p><p> </p><p>The reality of <em>reality </em>is emptiness. Everything is empty, nothingness because only God is BEING - is ISNESS, is the True Reality. </p><p> </p><p>We all want the world to function on <em>our </em>time. Reality is not like this and living like it were, when it isn't, causes needless suffering. We have to be always awake to the demands of the present moment which might not be what <em>we </em>want it to be. </p><p> </p><p>But we have no power over this <em>out-flowing </em>and <em>back-flowing; </em>that is, over this emptiness and transcience at the heart of material reality. It is like the wind, it blows wherever it chooses and we cannot chase after it once it has fled, nor contain it, or trap it. We have to accept it for what is and try and move with its flow or else suffer the consequences of living in the illusion that we can have power over the flow. </p><p> </p><p>This is the dilemna that hits us. We cannot stop the ceasless flow of emptying time. It is completely unaffected by our pain, hopes, fears, concerns and keeps on ceaslessly <em>giving </em>in each moment of time, in rapid sucession, forever and ever. </p><p> </p><p>It becomes agnozing to realize how powerless we truly are. <em>Impermanence </em>is the only constant. Change, emptying, ceaseless moving forth and back, is all there is. If we cling to past moments, or long for imaginery future ones, we experience suffering because there is no satisfaction to be found in temporal reality because all is <em>impermanent, empty, ever-changing, ever-moving. </em>This material reality is <em>not </em>the Unconditioned Absolute. It is nothing. Emptiness. </p><p> </p><p>The universe is governed by the law of rythm. </p><p> </p><p>You speak of wisdom. </p><p> </p><p>Wisdom for me is not realizing <em>karma. </em>I avoid, or try to avoid, the needless pageantry of destiny, karma, divine reward or punishment. It is only <strong><em>Me </em></strong>that makes me fail, my ego. If I remove the ego, my 'me', when its chains are broken then I am free. </p><p> </p><p>By severing my attachments to habits, objects, aims, goals etc. is to destroy the ego, the very illusion of self-permanence. </p><p> </p><p>In our ordinary state there is no escape from suffering caused by the unending emptying of reality. And in the end death comes, taking away everything, whether good or evil. </p><p> </p><p>We must recognise this nothingness which is at the heart of the universe - this is what makes it changeable and perishable, full of instability and suffering. This is because it is <em>not the Unconditioned Absolute </em>- he alone is the Real<em>. He is everywhere within his creation but he also infinetly transcends it. He alone exists, everything else is a lesser form of existence, deriving its very reality from him who is the reality of realities, soul of the universe. </em></p><p> </p><p>Nevertheless it is the emptiness in things that make the universe a reflection of God, a sharer in his existence. </p><p> </p><p>This realization creates the attitude of <em>detachment</em>. </p><p> </p><p>Standing within our Ground, where we find the Absolute Unconditioned One revealed to us in the present moment, we detach ourselves from self and created things. The wearisome succession of life and death, of past and future, of emptying upon emptying no longer oppresses us or holds us captive because we are freed from it and dwell in the <em>Unconditioned Absolute </em>accepting every moment as it arises and falls away, giving no thought for past or future, existing in the Eternal Now. </p><p> </p><p>The way to overcome suffering is to unite with God through the manifestation of his will in the present moment. Through detachment from self and created things we throw away our creatureliness and emptiness, we are filled full with God's divinity. </p><p> </p><p>And yet this in an ongoing process. To boast that I am free from craving, possessing or knowing only proves that our desires and illusions are still being fanned by the flames of our ego. </p><p> </p><p>This is a journey without end. It will continue throughout our lives as we try to live in synch with what reality dishes us in each moment. There is no destination in sight, its like a sea without a shore that we are continually gazing out at and I think that this is what brother Harry was trying to say and that you have mistaken for a fixation with this 'lifetime'. There is no destination. Its a wayless way, groping in the dark led only by our inner Light of conscience within as we discern the Divine Presence of the Unconditioned Absolute in each moment of our lives and in all creation. </p><p> </p><p>'Karma' is to me imagining more than reality actually gives us. I see no scientific basis for it just as there is none for an afterlife. That doesn't mean that it is not true. It might be and I see no harm in believing it to be the natural outcome of the presumed reality of the karmic law of cause and effect, if that is what one genuinely believes is the reality of things. I for one believe that conciousness continues to perpetually transmute and grow after death, in another <em>state </em>as it returns to the Unconditioned Absolute from which it came, just as our body returns to the dust of the earth and continues to go through the same old cycles of emptying and change. </p><p> </p><p>However that isn't really important to me. Reincarnation or immortality of conciousness, they both might be true and subjectively we both think they are but they both have no bearing on this <em>present reality. </em></p><p> </p><p>In fact if these concepts are abused, they could easily lead us away from focus upon the present moment and enlightenment in the here and now, to thoughts about some illusionary future lifespan or fairytale heaven or Pure Land (as with Pure Land Buddhism). </p><p> </p><p>We all crave permanence and so invent concepts of immortality and reincarnation. Immortality can take on a personal aspect; we will live forever in eternal time, hellish or heavenly. Reincarnation posits future lives were we can attain enlightenment. People might dream of working hard in this life at prayer or monastic living so as to be reborn in a Pure Land paradise, or as a Princess or an Emperor. It is all <em>escapism - </em>attempts to overcome the reality of our permanence rather than seek the stillness of the divine Ground within us and then bring that out into the world and effect change. As long as we cling to such notions we will fail to embrace the preciousness of this mortal existence, this very moment which is divine and the only <em>real thing we have</em>. </p><p> </p><p>The present moment is the closest thing to Time<em>less</em>ness. </p><p> </p><p>The best way to embrace the present moment is to recognise the impermanence of all things, and that life is life, only lived once and that there are no second, third, fourth lives: no second, third or fourth chances to know what you can know now, right here, in the midst of your menial, common, everyday life. </p><p> </p><p>Your arguement, dear brother, is wise. You might suggest that I am clinging to a permanent sense of <em>self </em>in my emphasis placed upon this life whereas you see reincarnation as the natural way out of this conundrum through karma, which is the basis of reality as you see it: when one reincarnates, it is not <em>you </em>as a person. New body, mind, brain, family, friends, life etc. In this sense you might say that there is no <em>me </em>living that second, third, fourth life. <em>I </em>the illusionary self with all my attachments, ceased to be when I died. </p><p> </p><p>However I feel no need to attest to reincarnation which has no scientific proof nor any bearing on how to help me cope with the reality of impermanence, of ceaseless emptying, in the here and now. </p><p> </p><p><em>Reality gives us all we need if our eyes are truly opened. It is selfless, above all distinctions, above all conditions, all persons, all thoughts, all ideas - it is a dark state of unknowing. </em></p><p> </p><p>And it gives us everything we need to live wisely in the midst of so much uncertainity and impernance in the <em>present moment. </em></p><p> </p><p>The present moment is the ambassador revealing the <em>Will </em>of that Unconditioned Absolute. </p><p> </p><p>Do not fooled - when I speak of <em>Will</em> in the context of the Unconditioned Absolute I am not personalizing it, nor referring to the personal God revealed in the Bible or the Qur'an. I am speaking not of 'God' but <strong><em>The God</em></strong> - not the three persons of the Christian Trinity who utter themselves forth and express themselves and thus receive names: Father, Son, Holy Spirit or in other traditions Brahma, Shiva, Allah etc. but the Silent Desert of Meister Eckhart, the Abyss of Transcendence, above and beyond all names and forms, which does not beget, nor create and which is not a 'Person'. <strong><em>The God </em></strong>is silent and impersonal; it has no name, is nameless; when it utters itself and express itself it becomes 'Father' and Son and Holy Spirit and Allah and Brahma etc. <strong><em>The God</em></strong> remains eternally transcedent and enfolded within the Divine Abyss of the Godhead. </p><p> </p><p><strong><em>The God </em></strong>has will. It isn't the anthropomorphic God of the average theist who talks with his Creation and intervenes from time to time in individual affairs. <strong><em>The God </em></strong>is transcends everything utterly. It sets the universe in motion, it is the source of that unceasing out-flowing and back-flowing - expanding and contracting eternally like a cosmic heart. <strong><em>The God </em></strong>is the heartbeat of the universe, the beating pulse of reality who is responsible for its impermanence, hollowness, emptiness and who creates this world as such to allow human beings to discover how best to live with the reality of emptiness, of change, transcience and impermanence. This discovery does not steam from Divine Revelation or supernatural/mystical experiences. It has been discovered by generations of enlightened human beings, to varying degrees as expressed through different languages, cultures and myths. That is why the Catholic Church said in the Vatican II document <em>Nostra Aetate: </em></p><p> </p><p> </p><p>"...<em>From ancient times down to the present, there is found among various peoples a certain perception of that hidden power which hovers over the course of things and over the events of human history...This perception and recognition penetrates their lives with a profound religious sense. Religions, however, that are bound up with an advanced culture have struggled to answer the same questions by means of more refined concepts and a more developed language...Buddhism, in its various forms, realizes the radical insufficiency of this changeable world; it teaches a way by which men, in a devout and confident spirit, may be able either to acquire the state of perfect liberation, or attain, by their own efforts or through higher help, supreme illumination. Likewise, other religions found everywhere try to counter the restlessness of the human heart, each in its own manner, by proposing "ways," comprising teachings, rules of life, and sacred rites. The Catholic Church rejects nothing that is true and holy in these religions</em>..." </p><p> </p><p><strong><em>- (Nostra Aetate)</em></strong> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Lao Tzu called it the Tao, the sages of the Vedas <em>Brahman. </em>The Lord Buddha - one of the most glorious spiritual teachers to have ever lived, I believe, made reference to the Unconditioned Absolute when he said so very wonderfully: </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>"...<em><span style="color: black">There is, O monks, an Unborn, Unoriginated, Uncreated, Unformed. Were there not, O monks, this Unborn, Unoriginated, Uncreated, Unformed, there would be no escape from the world of the born, originated, created, formed. Since, O monks, there is an Unborn, Unoriginated, Uncreated, Unformed, therefore is there an escape from the born, originated, created, formed. What is dependant, that also moves; what is independent does not</span> move</em>..." </p><p> </p><p><strong><em>- Lord Buddha (Udana 8:3)</em></strong></p><p> </p><p> </p><p>One of my favourite descriptions of the Uncreated Absolute comes from Saint John of the Cross: </p><p> </p><p> </p><p><em>"...I entered where there is no knowing,</em></p><p> </p><p><em><em>and unknowing I remained,</em></em></p><p> </p><p><em><em>all knowledge there transcending.</em></em></p><p> </p><p> </p><p><em><em>Where no knowing is I entered,</em></em></p><p><em><em>yet when I my own self saw there</em></em></p><p> </p><p><em><em>without knowing where I rested</em></em></p><p> </p><p><em><em>great things I understood there,</em></em></p><p> </p><p><em><em>yet cannot say what I felt there,</em></em></p><p> </p><p><em><em>since I rested in unknowing,</em></em></p><p> </p><p><em><em>all knowledge there transcending.</em></em></p><p> </p><p> </p><p><em><em>Of peace and of holy good</em></em></p><p> </p><p><em><em>there was perfect knowing,</em></em></p><p> </p><p><em><em>in profoundest solitude</em></em></p><p> </p><p><em><em>the only true way seeing,</em></em></p><p> </p><p><em><em>yet so secret is the thing</em></em></p><p> </p><p><em><em>that I was left here stammering,</em></em></p><p> </p><p><em><em>all knowledge there transcending.</em></em></p><p> </p><p> </p><p><em><em>I was left there so absorbed,</em></em></p><p> </p><p><em><em>so entranced, and so removed,</em></em></p><p> </p><p><em><em>that my senses were abroad,</em></em></p><p> </p><p><em><em>robbed of all sensation proved,</em></em></p><p> </p><p><em><em>and my spirit then was moved</em></em></p><p> </p><p><em><em>with an unknown knowing,</em></em></p><p> </p><p><em><em>all knowledge there transcending.</em></em></p><p> </p><p> </p><p><em><em>He who reaches there in truth</em></em></p><p> </p><p><em><em>from himself is parted though,</em></em></p><p> </p><p><em><em>and all that before he knew</em></em></p><p> </p><p><em><em>seems to him but base below,</em></em></p><p> </p><p><em><em>his knowledge increases so</em></em></p><p> </p><p><em><em>that knowledge has an ending,</em></em></p><p> </p><p><em><em>all knowledge there transcending.</em></em></p><p> </p><p> </p><p><em><em>The higher he climbs however</em></em></p><p> </p><p><em><em>the less he’ll ever understand,</em></em></p><p> </p><p><em><em>because the cloud grows darker</em></em></p><p> </p><p><em><em>that lit the night on every hand:</em></em></p><p> </p><p><em><em>whoever visits this dark land</em></em></p><p> </p><p><em><em>rests forever in unknowing,</em></em></p><p> </p><p><em><em>all knowledge there transcending.</em></em></p><p> </p><p> </p><p><em><em>This knowledge of unknowing</em></em></p><p> </p><p><em><em>is of so profound a power</em></em></p><p> </p><p><em><em>that no wise men arguing</em></em></p><p> </p><p><em><em>will ever supersede its hour:</em></em></p><p> </p><p><em><em>their wisdom cannot reach the tower</em></em></p><p> </p><p><em><em>where knowing has an ending,</em></em></p><p> </p><p><em><em>all knowledge there transcending.</em></em></p><p> </p><p> </p><p><em><em>It is of such true excellence</em></em></p><p> </p><p><em><em>this highest understanding,</em></em></p><p> </p><p><em><em>no science, no human sense,</em></em></p><p> </p><p><em><em>has it in its grasping,</em></em></p><p> </p><p><em><em>yet he who, by self-conquering</em></em></p><p> </p><p><em><em>grasps knowing in unknowing,</em></em></p><p> </p><p><em><em>goes evermore transcending</em></em></p><p> </p><p> </p><p><em><em>And in the deepest sense,</em></em></p><p> </p><p><em><em>this highest knowledge lies,</em></em></p><p> </p><p><em><em>of the divine essence,</em></em></p><p> </p><p><em><em>if you would be wise:</em></em></p><p> </p><p><em><em>his mercy so it does comprise,</em></em></p><p> </p><p><em><em>each one leaving in unknowing,</em></em></p><p> </p><p><em><em>all knowledge there transcending.</em></em></p><p> </p><p><em><em>Its source I do not know because it has none.</em></em></p><p><em><em>And yet from this, I know, all sources come,</em></em></p><p><em><em>Although by night.</em></em></p><p> </p><p><em><em>I know that no created thing could be so fair</em></em></p><p><em><em>And that both earth and heaven drink from there,</em></em></p><p><em><em>Although by night.</em></em></p><p> </p><p><em><em>Its radiance is never clouded and in this</em></em></p><p><em><em>I know that all light has its genesis,</em></em></p><p><em><em>Although by night.</em></em></p><p><em><em>......................</em></em></p><p> </p><p><em><em>The current welling from this fountain's source</em></em></p><p><em><em>I know to be as mighty as its force,</em></em></p><p><em><em>Although by night..." </em></em></p><p> </p><p><em><strong>- Saint John of the Cross (1542 – 1591), </strong></em></p><p><em><strong><em>Verses on the Ecstasy of Deep Contemplation, </em></strong></em></p><p><em><em><strong>Catholic mystic and Doctor of the Church </strong></em></em></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Saint Nikolai Velimirovic, an Eastern Catholic saint, said of Lord Buddha: </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>"<strong><em>The royal son of India teaches my heart to empty herself completely of every seed and crop of the world, to abandon all the serpentine allurements of frail and shadowy matter, and then in vacuity, tranquillity, purity and bliss to await nirvana. Blessed be the memory of Buddha, the royal son and inexorable teacher of his people</em></strong>!"</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>To return to what I was saying this Unconditioned Absolute has a <em>Will. </em></p><p> </p><p>From its source in <strong><em>The God </em></strong>there emerged a world that would eventually come to know itself. We are the local embodiement of that Universe which through us has become aware of Itself, after so many billions of years of evolution to this state. Humanity is the material universe in a self-aware state. </p><p> </p><p>The <em>will </em>of the Unconditioned Absolute does not will as a person wills but rather it gives rise to all things, their arising and falling back in each moment. The present moment is therefore the manifestation of the Divine Will of this Unconditioned Absolute for us: the local, self-aware embodiement of its material creation which sprung forth from it and will return to it. </p><p> </p><p>Time is really a creation of our own mind. We are called to <em>timelessness</em>. Eternity is time. <span style="color: black">Eternity is not some future event. Eternity is discovered to be at the core of the present moment - wherever that moment exists which, as I have explained to you, is the manifestation of the Will of that Unconditioned Absolute I call <strong><em>The God</em></strong>. </span></p><p> </p><p>To embrace the present moment and move beyond time we must renounce <em>self. </em>When I speak of <em>self </em>I am referring to all the external, social personalities, projections, illusions, private thoughts and emotions which we associate with a permanent <em>self </em>but which is really not who we are. </p><p> </p><p>As the modern Catholic mystic Cyrprian Smith, commenting on the thought of Meister Eckhart, explains: </p><p> </p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">"...I am not who I think I am, and 'You' are not who you think 'You' are. What we call 'I' and 'You' is indeed a projection, and if we go far enough in withdrawing the projections and in piercing the veils, we shall reach a point at which there is no longer any 'I' or 'You'. We shall reach a point at which we realize that our true self has nothing to do with 'function'...a lawyer, a chimney-sweep, a doctor, a dustman, a priest...These are only functions, things we do; they are not <em>us</em>...These roles and functions are real projections...they give us a sense of security, a sense of identity and belonging. They prevent us from glimpsing the awful void and emptiness within ourselves: they make us feel solid, needed, valued and permanent...But it is not only our external, social personalities that are a tissue of projections and illusions. The same is true of much of our inner, private world, which we may well be tempted to regard as our 'self'...We are not our social functions or roles; but neither are we our private thoughts or emotions...If we watch our emotions and thoughts long enough, we may eventually become aware of something which is not <em>not </em>these emotions or thoughts...There is something within me which is at all times perfectly detached, tranquil and serene. It is never excited about anything, never downcast or depressed by anything. It is like a deep, perhaps, bottomless lake; my various thoughts and emotions are like ripples or waves upon the surface. But below the surface, in the depths, there are no ripples; everything is still...We are a different 'self' depending on the moods or activities of the moment...There is nothing to give any unity or continiuity to my identity...I am not one self but a sequence of different or even conflicting selves...We are not real, unified 'selves', we are not capable of true action, until we learn to enter the Ground...It transcends place and time. Anyone who enters the Ground no longer cares about the past or the future: he is aware only of the present moment, and the present moment is shot through with Divine Light, because it is in the present, and in the present alone, that the world of time touches the world of eternity. Standing within this impregnable citadel, we are troubled neither by the thought of our past experiences nor of possible troubles and preoccupations still to come..." </span></p><p> </p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 12px">- Cyrprian Smith OSB, Catholic theologian and mystic</span></strong></p><p> </p><p> </p><p>As the Catholic mystic Angelus Silesius (1624 – 1677) explains: </p><p> </p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">"Eternal Spirit, God becomes</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">All that He wills to be—but still</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">Abideth ever as He is,</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">Without a form, an aim, a will."</span></p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Though the Unconditioned Absolute manifests his will in the present moment, It remains changelessly without form or desire. Only the illusory, the conditioned mind creates form, aims, and desires. </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Silesius also said:</p><p> </p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">"Here in the midst of Time God doth become what He,</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">The Unbecome, was not in all Eternity."</span></p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Time is an illusion created by conditioned mind. <span style="color: #663300"><span style="color: black">We must strive to heed the Will of The God in each moment that comes our way. </span></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="color: black">Did not Jesus say, "Take no thought for tommorrow, for tommorrow will take thought for itself"? </span></p><p> </p><p><span style="color: black">The Islamic mystic Rumi said, "The Sufi is the son of the present moment". </span></p><p><span style="color: black">Catholics call this "The Sacrament of the Present moment".</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="color: black">A sacrament is an outward and visible sign of an inward and invisible grace...every moment is a sacrament, in every moment, in the quiet stillness of the Eternal Now we can find God. Not tommorrow, not yesterday or even worse - certainly not "next lifetime"! </span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: #663300"><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="color: #000000">Only the Present Moment is Eternal. There will ALWAYS BE A NOW. There will not always be a tommorrow and yesterday is gone. It is thus the closest thing to eternity - moment-by-moment - THE ETERNAL NOW. The God exists beyond all time and place in the Eternal Now and we can only receive him in the present moment and there find our liberation from temporality and material attachments. </span></span></span></span></p><p> </p><p>Of the GODHEAD Silesius also said:</p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">"God is an utter Nothingness,</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong>Beyond the touch of Time and Place:</strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">The more thou graspest after Him,</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">The more he fleeth thy embrace."</span></p><p> </p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: #663300"><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-size: 10px"><strong>"To leave the past to the mercy of God, the future to his providence, is the kind of excellent advice we would cheerfully prescribe to others. How difficult though to practice it ourselves! The present moment is the only moment we have. It is only in the here and now that we meet God"</strong> <em>- Bishop John Crowley </em></span></span></span></span></p><p> <span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: #663300"></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: #663300"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: #663300"><strong>"Morning, afternoon, evening- the hours of the day, of any day, of your day and my day. The alphabet of grace. If there is a God who speaks everywhere, surely he speaks here: through waking up and working, through going away and coming back again, through people you meet and books you read, through falling asleep in the dark"</strong> <em>- Frederick Buechner</em></span></span></span></span></p><p> <span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: #663300"></span></span></p><p> <span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: #663300"></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: #663300"><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="color: #000000">Saint Faustina, a Catholic mystic, once wrote: </span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: #663300"></span></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: #663300"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: #663300">"...</span></span><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-size: 10px"><strong>When I look into the future, I am frightened,</strong></span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: #663300"><strong><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="color: #000000">But why plunge into the future?</span></span></strong></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: #663300"><strong><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="color: #000000">Only the present moment is precious to me,</span></span></strong></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: #663300"><strong><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="color: #000000">As the future may never enter my mind at all.</span></span></strong></span></span></p><p> <span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: #663300"></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: #663300"><strong><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="color: #000000">It is no longer in my power,</span></span></strong></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: #663300"><strong><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="color: #000000">To change, correct or add to the past;</span></span></strong></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: #663300"><strong><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="color: #000000">For neither sages nor prophets could do that.</span></span></strong></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: #663300"><strong><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="color: #000000">And so, what the past has embraced I must entrust to God.</span></span></strong></span></span></p><p> <span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: #663300"></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: #663300"><strong><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="color: #000000">O present moment, you belong to me, whole and entire.</span></span></strong></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: #663300"><strong><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="color: #000000">I desire to use you as best I can.</span></span></strong></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: #663300"><strong><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="color: #000000">And although I am weak and small,</span></span></strong></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: #663300"><strong><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="color: #000000">You grant me the grace of your omnipotence.</span></span></strong></span></span></p><p> <span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: #663300"></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: #663300"><strong><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="color: #000000">And so, trusting in Your mercy,</span></span></strong></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: #663300"><strong><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="color: #000000">I walk through life like a little child,</span></span></strong></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: #663300"><strong><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="color: #000000">Offering You each day this heart</span></span></strong></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: #663300"><strong><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="color: #000000">Burning with love for Your greater glory...</span></span></strong><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="color: #000000">"</span></span></span></span></p><p> <span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: #663300"></span></span></p><p> <span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: #663300"></span></span></p><p> <span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: #663300"></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: #663300"></span></span>But why the need for karma and reincarnation to embrace this truth of impermanence and timelessness? </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Catholic mystics have understood this truth while not believing in karma or reincarnation - and actually, while being theists! kaurhug</p><p> </p><p>All that we achieve in this short human lifespan will perish when the world ends. Our life will end, our children's lives will end, their grandchildren's lives will end, this land will in millions of years be different, this earth will one day be swallowed up by the sun and so on. But that's all in the future. Why casts our minds there? That is the reality of impermanence and it hits us hard. We cannot find satisfaction from attachment to any impermanent thing - I think perhaps even to the concept of reincarnation, which has no scientific proof, or of karma which falls short in my opinion of the true nature of reality. Lets seek for that which transcends this life, within our Ground where there is immeasurable being unrestrained by time or place, by goals or desires, by cravings, by projections and illusions and which is ever pure, still, unperturbed by outward interference and where the flame of ego is extinguished. </p><p> </p><p>Much love to you brother/sister Confused and sorry for making this so darn long! kaurhug</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Archived_member15, post: 168114, member: 17438"] Dear brother/sister Confused ji kaurhug I know that this was directed to brother Harry, nonetheless I was intrigued by your thoughts and would like to deepen my understanding of what you are trying to communicate. We should not bring viewpoints and opinions shaped by personalistic beliefs about reality into this discussion. The Way of Things is the Way of Things, regardless of our finite understandings. Rather we should aim to seek for the truth at the heart of things. We should all aim to uncover what [I]is [/I]rather than what we would [I]like [/I]it to be. So I am not going to offer you "opinions", to the best of my ability, but rather a genuine explanation of how reality [I]is [/I]as far as I can discern it. My thoughts are a bit convoluted at the minute and long-winded, so I hope you are not bored by the length. If you can give your opinions and critique of my thoughts, I would much appreciate it. Read this: [SIZE=3]"...Do not compute eternity[/SIZE] [SIZE=3]as light-year after year[/SIZE] [SIZE=3]One step across that line called Time: [/SIZE] [SIZE=3]Eternity is here[/SIZE] [SIZE=3]How fleeting is this world[/SIZE] [SIZE=3]yet it survives. [/SIZE] [SIZE=3]It is ourselves that fade from it[/SIZE] [SIZE=3]and our ephemeral lives. [/SIZE] [SIZE=3]Were I to lose myself in the God[/SIZE] [SIZE=3]I'd find again the Ground[/SIZE] [SIZE=3]that held and nurtured me[/SIZE] [SIZE=3]before this earthly round[/SIZE] [SIZE=3]I have known wealth and fame[/SIZE] [SIZE=3]poverty and utter shame[/SIZE] [SIZE=3]Yet all was transitory[/SIZE] [SIZE=3]Beyond time I found bliss and glory[/SIZE] [SIZE=3]Timelessness[/SIZE] [SIZE=3]Is so much a part of you, of me - [/SIZE] [SIZE=3]We cannot hope to find[/SIZE] [SIZE=3]the Ground[/SIZE] [SIZE=3]until aware of our eternity [/SIZE] [SIZE=3]Time is of your own making, [/SIZE] [SIZE=3]its clock ticks in your head. [/SIZE] [SIZE=3]The moment you stop thought[/SIZE] [SIZE=3]time too stops dead. [/SIZE] [SIZE=3]Just one step out of time [/SIZE] [SIZE=3]I enter God's eternity[/SIZE] [SIZE=3]and I am wholly freed[/SIZE] [SIZE=3]from human transciency [/SIZE] [SIZE=3]Until you lose your Me[/SIZE] [SIZE=3]you cannot see God's face -[/SIZE] [SIZE=3]The moment you recover it [/SIZE] [SIZE=3]you fall from grace[/SIZE] [SIZE=3]How short our span! [/SIZE] [SIZE=3]If you once realized how brief, [/SIZE] [SIZE=3]you would refrain [/SIZE] [SIZE=3]from causing any beast or man[/SIZE] [SIZE=3]the smallest grief, the slightest pain. [/SIZE] [SIZE=3]I am God's alter ego[/SIZE] [SIZE=3]He is my counterpart [/SIZE] [SIZE=3]In timelessness we merge - [/SIZE] [SIZE=3]in time we seem apart [/SIZE] [SIZE=3]Most sacred: [/SIZE] [SIZE=3]The Void's immobility[/SIZE] [SIZE=3]that makes all move, [/SIZE] [SIZE=3]retaining its tranquility. [/SIZE] [SIZE=3]He has not lived in vain[/SIZE] [SIZE=3]who learns to be unruffled[/SIZE] [SIZE=3]by loss, by gain, [/SIZE] [SIZE=3]by, joy, by pain.[/SIZE] [SIZE=3]You are not real, Death, [/SIZE] [SIZE=3]for I die every minute[/SIZE] [SIZE=3]and am reborn in the next[/SIZE] [SIZE=3]into life infinite[/SIZE] [SIZE=3]The sage does not fear death. [/SIZE] [SIZE=3]To often has he died[/SIZE] [SIZE=3]to ego and its vanities, [/SIZE] [SIZE=3]to all that keeps man tied. [/SIZE] [SIZE=3]At the end of that [/SIZE] [SIZE=3]which we call history[/SIZE] [SIZE=3]God is who IS: [/SIZE] [SIZE=3]for Him there is no past[/SIZE] [SIZE=3]nor future yet to be..."[/SIZE] [SIZE=3][B][I]- Angelus Silesius (1624 – 1677), Catholic mystic[/I][/B] [/SIZE] Does not this Catholic mystic hit upon the very same truth that you have? He says that Time is an illusion created by conditioned mind. Step over the line, through the present moment, and find eternity and Immeasurable Being in the here and now. And yet he is a Catholic who does not believe in either karma or reincarnation - and that is my contention, these concepts are not necessary to the truth you have touched upon, which is universal, whereas karma and reincarnation are particular metaphysical concepts born of a specific culture just like the ideas of eternal life, heaven or hell. My understanding - and I am only 20 so I am open to new developments - is that reality is in a continual state of emptying. The way I would compare it is to rivers coming out from a sea and returning back again in one unending cycle of outflowing and back-flowing. This flowing forth from the unconditioned Absolute which I call "God" - which is a negation of all negation - is continual and simultaneous. The purpose, as I see it, of human life is to be the mediator or instrument through which that which comes from the unconditioned Absolute can return to the unconditioned Absolute. The whole of spiritual life can thus be viewed as one massive cosmic heart-beat, in-flowing and out-flowing continually, a movement of expansion and contraction which is happening in every moment. This is the insight which impermanence brings. Everything is in a state of [I]becoming [/I]within time, emptying upon emptying. Once the idea of permanence is cast aside, we are free to experience divine reality in each moment as it arrives and falls away, that out-flowing and back-flowing I explained earlier. Everything is like breath, a chasing after the wind. The reality of [I]reality [/I]is emptiness. Everything is empty, nothingness because only God is BEING - is ISNESS, is the True Reality. We all want the world to function on [I]our [/I]time. Reality is not like this and living like it were, when it isn't, causes needless suffering. We have to be always awake to the demands of the present moment which might not be what [I]we [/I]want it to be. But we have no power over this [I]out-flowing [/I]and [I]back-flowing; [/I]that is, over this emptiness and transcience at the heart of material reality. It is like the wind, it blows wherever it chooses and we cannot chase after it once it has fled, nor contain it, or trap it. We have to accept it for what is and try and move with its flow or else suffer the consequences of living in the illusion that we can have power over the flow. This is the dilemna that hits us. We cannot stop the ceasless flow of emptying time. It is completely unaffected by our pain, hopes, fears, concerns and keeps on ceaslessly [I]giving [/I]in each moment of time, in rapid sucession, forever and ever. It becomes agnozing to realize how powerless we truly are. [I]Impermanence [/I]is the only constant. Change, emptying, ceaseless moving forth and back, is all there is. If we cling to past moments, or long for imaginery future ones, we experience suffering because there is no satisfaction to be found in temporal reality because all is [I]impermanent, empty, ever-changing, ever-moving. [/I]This material reality is [I]not [/I]the Unconditioned Absolute. It is nothing. Emptiness. The universe is governed by the law of rythm. You speak of wisdom. Wisdom for me is not realizing [I]karma. [/I]I avoid, or try to avoid, the needless pageantry of destiny, karma, divine reward or punishment. It is only [B][I]Me [/I][/B]that makes me fail, my ego. If I remove the ego, my 'me', when its chains are broken then I am free. By severing my attachments to habits, objects, aims, goals etc. is to destroy the ego, the very illusion of self-permanence. In our ordinary state there is no escape from suffering caused by the unending emptying of reality. And in the end death comes, taking away everything, whether good or evil. We must recognise this nothingness which is at the heart of the universe - this is what makes it changeable and perishable, full of instability and suffering. This is because it is [I]not the Unconditioned Absolute [/I]- he alone is the Real[I]. He is everywhere within his creation but he also infinetly transcends it. He alone exists, everything else is a lesser form of existence, deriving its very reality from him who is the reality of realities, soul of the universe. [/I] Nevertheless it is the emptiness in things that make the universe a reflection of God, a sharer in his existence. This realization creates the attitude of [I]detachment[/I]. Standing within our Ground, where we find the Absolute Unconditioned One revealed to us in the present moment, we detach ourselves from self and created things. The wearisome succession of life and death, of past and future, of emptying upon emptying no longer oppresses us or holds us captive because we are freed from it and dwell in the [I]Unconditioned Absolute [/I]accepting every moment as it arises and falls away, giving no thought for past or future, existing in the Eternal Now. The way to overcome suffering is to unite with God through the manifestation of his will in the present moment. Through detachment from self and created things we throw away our creatureliness and emptiness, we are filled full with God's divinity. And yet this in an ongoing process. To boast that I am free from craving, possessing or knowing only proves that our desires and illusions are still being fanned by the flames of our ego. This is a journey without end. It will continue throughout our lives as we try to live in synch with what reality dishes us in each moment. There is no destination in sight, its like a sea without a shore that we are continually gazing out at and I think that this is what brother Harry was trying to say and that you have mistaken for a fixation with this 'lifetime'. There is no destination. Its a wayless way, groping in the dark led only by our inner Light of conscience within as we discern the Divine Presence of the Unconditioned Absolute in each moment of our lives and in all creation. 'Karma' is to me imagining more than reality actually gives us. I see no scientific basis for it just as there is none for an afterlife. That doesn't mean that it is not true. It might be and I see no harm in believing it to be the natural outcome of the presumed reality of the karmic law of cause and effect, if that is what one genuinely believes is the reality of things. I for one believe that conciousness continues to perpetually transmute and grow after death, in another [I]state [/I]as it returns to the Unconditioned Absolute from which it came, just as our body returns to the dust of the earth and continues to go through the same old cycles of emptying and change. However that isn't really important to me. Reincarnation or immortality of conciousness, they both might be true and subjectively we both think they are but they both have no bearing on this [I]present reality. [/I] In fact if these concepts are abused, they could easily lead us away from focus upon the present moment and enlightenment in the here and now, to thoughts about some illusionary future lifespan or fairytale heaven or Pure Land (as with Pure Land Buddhism). We all crave permanence and so invent concepts of immortality and reincarnation. Immortality can take on a personal aspect; we will live forever in eternal time, hellish or heavenly. Reincarnation posits future lives were we can attain enlightenment. People might dream of working hard in this life at prayer or monastic living so as to be reborn in a Pure Land paradise, or as a Princess or an Emperor. It is all [I]escapism - [/I]attempts to overcome the reality of our permanence rather than seek the stillness of the divine Ground within us and then bring that out into the world and effect change. As long as we cling to such notions we will fail to embrace the preciousness of this mortal existence, this very moment which is divine and the only [I]real thing we have[/I]. The present moment is the closest thing to Time[I]less[/I]ness. The best way to embrace the present moment is to recognise the impermanence of all things, and that life is life, only lived once and that there are no second, third, fourth lives: no second, third or fourth chances to know what you can know now, right here, in the midst of your menial, common, everyday life. Your arguement, dear brother, is wise. You might suggest that I am clinging to a permanent sense of [I]self [/I]in my emphasis placed upon this life whereas you see reincarnation as the natural way out of this conundrum through karma, which is the basis of reality as you see it: when one reincarnates, it is not [I]you [/I]as a person. New body, mind, brain, family, friends, life etc. In this sense you might say that there is no [I]me [/I]living that second, third, fourth life. [I]I [/I]the illusionary self with all my attachments, ceased to be when I died. However I feel no need to attest to reincarnation which has no scientific proof nor any bearing on how to help me cope with the reality of impermanence, of ceaseless emptying, in the here and now. [I]Reality gives us all we need if our eyes are truly opened. It is selfless, above all distinctions, above all conditions, all persons, all thoughts, all ideas - it is a dark state of unknowing. [/I] And it gives us everything we need to live wisely in the midst of so much uncertainity and impernance in the [I]present moment. [/I] The present moment is the ambassador revealing the [I]Will [/I]of that Unconditioned Absolute. Do not fooled - when I speak of [I]Will[/I] in the context of the Unconditioned Absolute I am not personalizing it, nor referring to the personal God revealed in the Bible or the Qur'an. I am speaking not of 'God' but [B][I]The God[/I][/B] - not the three persons of the Christian Trinity who utter themselves forth and express themselves and thus receive names: Father, Son, Holy Spirit or in other traditions Brahma, Shiva, Allah etc. but the Silent Desert of Meister Eckhart, the Abyss of Transcendence, above and beyond all names and forms, which does not beget, nor create and which is not a 'Person'. [B][I]The God [/I][/B]is silent and impersonal; it has no name, is nameless; when it utters itself and express itself it becomes 'Father' and Son and Holy Spirit and Allah and Brahma etc. [B][I]The God[/I][/B] remains eternally transcedent and enfolded within the Divine Abyss of the Godhead. [B][I]The God [/I][/B]has will. It isn't the anthropomorphic God of the average theist who talks with his Creation and intervenes from time to time in individual affairs. [B][I]The God [/I][/B]is transcends everything utterly. It sets the universe in motion, it is the source of that unceasing out-flowing and back-flowing - expanding and contracting eternally like a cosmic heart. [B][I]The God [/I][/B]is the heartbeat of the universe, the beating pulse of reality who is responsible for its impermanence, hollowness, emptiness and who creates this world as such to allow human beings to discover how best to live with the reality of emptiness, of change, transcience and impermanence. This discovery does not steam from Divine Revelation or supernatural/mystical experiences. It has been discovered by generations of enlightened human beings, to varying degrees as expressed through different languages, cultures and myths. That is why the Catholic Church said in the Vatican II document [I]Nostra Aetate: [/I] "...[I]From ancient times down to the present, there is found among various peoples a certain perception of that hidden power which hovers over the course of things and over the events of human history...This perception and recognition penetrates their lives with a profound religious sense. Religions, however, that are bound up with an advanced culture have struggled to answer the same questions by means of more refined concepts and a more developed language...Buddhism, in its various forms, realizes the radical insufficiency of this changeable world; it teaches a way by which men, in a devout and confident spirit, may be able either to acquire the state of perfect liberation, or attain, by their own efforts or through higher help, supreme illumination. Likewise, other religions found everywhere try to counter the restlessness of the human heart, each in its own manner, by proposing "ways," comprising teachings, rules of life, and sacred rites. The Catholic Church rejects nothing that is true and holy in these religions[/I]..." [B][I]- (Nostra Aetate)[/I][/B] Lao Tzu called it the Tao, the sages of the Vedas [I]Brahman. [/I]The Lord Buddha - one of the most glorious spiritual teachers to have ever lived, I believe, made reference to the Unconditioned Absolute when he said so very wonderfully: "...[I][COLOR=black]There is, O monks, an Unborn, Unoriginated, Uncreated, Unformed. Were there not, O monks, this Unborn, Unoriginated, Uncreated, Unformed, there would be no escape from the world of the born, originated, created, formed. Since, O monks, there is an Unborn, Unoriginated, Uncreated, Unformed, therefore is there an escape from the born, originated, created, formed. What is dependant, that also moves; what is independent does not[/COLOR] move[/I]..." [B][I]- Lord Buddha (Udana 8:3)[/I][/B] One of my favourite descriptions of the Uncreated Absolute comes from Saint John of the Cross: [I]"...I entered where there is no knowing,[/I] [I][I]and unknowing I remained,[/I][/I] [I][I]all knowledge there transcending.[/I][/I] [I][I]Where no knowing is I entered,[/I][/I] [I][I]yet when I my own self saw there[/I][/I] [I][I]without knowing where I rested[/I][/I] [I][I]great things I understood there,[/I][/I] [I][I]yet cannot say what I felt there,[/I][/I] [I][I]since I rested in unknowing,[/I][/I] [I][I]all knowledge there transcending.[/I][/I] [I][I]Of peace and of holy good[/I][/I] [I][I]there was perfect knowing,[/I][/I] [I][I]in profoundest solitude[/I][/I] [I][I]the only true way seeing,[/I][/I] [I][I]yet so secret is the thing[/I][/I] [I][I]that I was left here stammering,[/I][/I] [I][I]all knowledge there transcending.[/I][/I] [I][I]I was left there so absorbed,[/I][/I] [I][I]so entranced, and so removed,[/I][/I] [I][I]that my senses were abroad,[/I][/I] [I][I]robbed of all sensation proved,[/I][/I] [I][I]and my spirit then was moved[/I][/I] [I][I]with an unknown knowing,[/I][/I] [I][I]all knowledge there transcending.[/I][/I] [I][I]He who reaches there in truth[/I][/I] [I][I]from himself is parted though,[/I][/I] [I][I]and all that before he knew[/I][/I] [I][I]seems to him but base below,[/I][/I] [I][I]his knowledge increases so[/I][/I] [I][I]that knowledge has an ending,[/I][/I] [I][I]all knowledge there transcending.[/I][/I] [I][I]The higher he climbs however[/I][/I] [I][I]the less he’ll ever understand,[/I][/I] [I][I]because the cloud grows darker[/I][/I] [I][I]that lit the night on every hand:[/I][/I] [I][I]whoever visits this dark land[/I][/I] [I][I]rests forever in unknowing,[/I][/I] [I][I]all knowledge there transcending.[/I][/I] [I][I]This knowledge of unknowing[/I][/I] [I][I]is of so profound a power[/I][/I] [I][I]that no wise men arguing[/I][/I] [I][I]will ever supersede its hour:[/I][/I] [I][I]their wisdom cannot reach the tower[/I][/I] [I][I]where knowing has an ending,[/I][/I] [I][I]all knowledge there transcending.[/I][/I] [I][I]It is of such true excellence[/I][/I] [I][I]this highest understanding,[/I][/I] [I][I]no science, no human sense,[/I][/I] [I][I]has it in its grasping,[/I][/I] [I][I]yet he who, by self-conquering[/I][/I] [I][I]grasps knowing in unknowing,[/I][/I] [I][I]goes evermore transcending[/I][/I] [I][I]And in the deepest sense,[/I][/I] [I][I]this highest knowledge lies,[/I][/I] [I][I]of the divine essence,[/I][/I] [I][I]if you would be wise:[/I][/I] [I][I]his mercy so it does comprise,[/I][/I] [I][I]each one leaving in unknowing,[/I][/I] [I][I]all knowledge there transcending.[/I][/I] [I][I]Its source I do not know because it has none.[/I][/I] [I][I]And yet from this, I know, all sources come,[/I][/I] [I][I]Although by night.[/I][/I] [I][I]I know that no created thing could be so fair[/I][/I] [I][I]And that both earth and heaven drink from there,[/I][/I] [I][I]Although by night.[/I][/I] [I][I]Its radiance is never clouded and in this[/I][/I] [I][I]I know that all light has its genesis,[/I][/I] [I][I]Although by night.[/I][/I] [I][I]......................[/I][/I] [I][I]The current welling from this fountain's source[/I][/I] [I][I]I know to be as mighty as its force,[/I][/I] [I][I]Although by night..." [/I][/I] [I][B]- Saint John of the Cross (1542 – 1591), [/B][/I] [I][B][I]Verses on the Ecstasy of Deep Contemplation, [/I][/B][/I] [I][I][B]Catholic mystic and Doctor of the Church [/B][/I][/I] Saint Nikolai Velimirovic, an Eastern Catholic saint, said of Lord Buddha: "[B][I]The royal son of India teaches my heart to empty herself completely of every seed and crop of the world, to abandon all the serpentine allurements of frail and shadowy matter, and then in vacuity, tranquillity, purity and bliss to await nirvana. Blessed be the memory of Buddha, the royal son and inexorable teacher of his people[/I][/B]!" To return to what I was saying this Unconditioned Absolute has a [I]Will. [/I] From its source in [B][I]The God [/I][/B]there emerged a world that would eventually come to know itself. We are the local embodiement of that Universe which through us has become aware of Itself, after so many billions of years of evolution to this state. Humanity is the material universe in a self-aware state. The [I]will [/I]of the Unconditioned Absolute does not will as a person wills but rather it gives rise to all things, their arising and falling back in each moment. The present moment is therefore the manifestation of the Divine Will of this Unconditioned Absolute for us: the local, self-aware embodiement of its material creation which sprung forth from it and will return to it. Time is really a creation of our own mind. We are called to [I]timelessness[/I]. Eternity is time. [COLOR=black]Eternity is not some future event. Eternity is discovered to be at the core of the present moment - wherever that moment exists which, as I have explained to you, is the manifestation of the Will of that Unconditioned Absolute I call [B][I]The God[/I][/B]. [/COLOR] To embrace the present moment and move beyond time we must renounce [I]self. [/I]When I speak of [I]self [/I]I am referring to all the external, social personalities, projections, illusions, private thoughts and emotions which we associate with a permanent [I]self [/I]but which is really not who we are. As the modern Catholic mystic Cyrprian Smith, commenting on the thought of Meister Eckhart, explains: [SIZE=3]"...I am not who I think I am, and 'You' are not who you think 'You' are. What we call 'I' and 'You' is indeed a projection, and if we go far enough in withdrawing the projections and in piercing the veils, we shall reach a point at which there is no longer any 'I' or 'You'. We shall reach a point at which we realize that our true self has nothing to do with 'function'...a lawyer, a chimney-sweep, a doctor, a dustman, a priest...These are only functions, things we do; they are not [I]us[/I]...These roles and functions are real projections...they give us a sense of security, a sense of identity and belonging. They prevent us from glimpsing the awful void and emptiness within ourselves: they make us feel solid, needed, valued and permanent...But it is not only our external, social personalities that are a tissue of projections and illusions. The same is true of much of our inner, private world, which we may well be tempted to regard as our 'self'...We are not our social functions or roles; but neither are we our private thoughts or emotions...If we watch our emotions and thoughts long enough, we may eventually become aware of something which is not [I]not [/I]these emotions or thoughts...There is something within me which is at all times perfectly detached, tranquil and serene. It is never excited about anything, never downcast or depressed by anything. It is like a deep, perhaps, bottomless lake; my various thoughts and emotions are like ripples or waves upon the surface. But below the surface, in the depths, there are no ripples; everything is still...We are a different 'self' depending on the moods or activities of the moment...There is nothing to give any unity or continiuity to my identity...I am not one self but a sequence of different or even conflicting selves...We are not real, unified 'selves', we are not capable of true action, until we learn to enter the Ground...It transcends place and time. Anyone who enters the Ground no longer cares about the past or the future: he is aware only of the present moment, and the present moment is shot through with Divine Light, because it is in the present, and in the present alone, that the world of time touches the world of eternity. Standing within this impregnable citadel, we are troubled neither by the thought of our past experiences nor of possible troubles and preoccupations still to come..." [/SIZE] [B][SIZE=3]- Cyrprian Smith OSB, Catholic theologian and mystic[/SIZE][/B] As the Catholic mystic Angelus Silesius (1624 – 1677) explains: [SIZE=3]"Eternal Spirit, God becomes[/SIZE] [SIZE=3]All that He wills to be—but still[/SIZE] [SIZE=3]Abideth ever as He is,[/SIZE] [SIZE=3]Without a form, an aim, a will."[/SIZE] Though the Unconditioned Absolute manifests his will in the present moment, It remains changelessly without form or desire. Only the illusory, the conditioned mind creates form, aims, and desires. Silesius also said: [SIZE=3]"Here in the midst of Time God doth become what He,[/SIZE] [SIZE=3]The Unbecome, was not in all Eternity."[/SIZE] Time is an illusion created by conditioned mind. [COLOR=#663300][COLOR=black]We must strive to heed the Will of The God in each moment that comes our way. [/COLOR][/COLOR] [COLOR=black]Did not Jesus say, "Take no thought for tommorrow, for tommorrow will take thought for itself"? [/COLOR] [COLOR=black]The Islamic mystic Rumi said, "The Sufi is the son of the present moment". [/COLOR] [COLOR=black]Catholics call this "The Sacrament of the Present moment".[/COLOR] [COLOR=black]A sacrament is an outward and visible sign of an inward and invisible grace...every moment is a sacrament, in every moment, in the quiet stillness of the Eternal Now we can find God. Not tommorrow, not yesterday or even worse - certainly not "next lifetime"! [/COLOR] [SIZE=3][COLOR=#663300][SIZE=2][COLOR=#000000]Only the Present Moment is Eternal. There will ALWAYS BE A NOW. There will not always be a tommorrow and yesterday is gone. It is thus the closest thing to eternity - moment-by-moment - THE ETERNAL NOW. The God exists beyond all time and place in the Eternal Now and we can only receive him in the present moment and there find our liberation from temporality and material attachments. [/COLOR][/SIZE][/COLOR][/SIZE] Of the GODHEAD Silesius also said: [SIZE=3]"God is an utter Nothingness,[/SIZE] [SIZE=3][B]Beyond the touch of Time and Place:[/B][/SIZE] [SIZE=3]The more thou graspest after Him,[/SIZE] [SIZE=3]The more he fleeth thy embrace."[/SIZE] [SIZE=3][COLOR=#663300][COLOR=#000000][SIZE=2][B]"To leave the past to the mercy of God, the future to his providence, is the kind of excellent advice we would cheerfully prescribe to others. How difficult though to practice it ourselves! The present moment is the only moment we have. It is only in the here and now that we meet God"[/B] [I]- Bishop John Crowley [/I][/SIZE][/COLOR] [SIZE=3][COLOR=#663300][B]"Morning, afternoon, evening- the hours of the day, of any day, of your day and my day. The alphabet of grace. If there is a God who speaks everywhere, surely he speaks here: through waking up and working, through going away and coming back again, through people you meet and books you read, through falling asleep in the dark"[/B] [I]- Frederick Buechner[/I][/COLOR][/SIZE] [SIZE=2][COLOR=#000000]Saint Faustina, a Catholic mystic, once wrote: [/COLOR][/SIZE] [/COLOR][/SIZE] [SIZE=3][COLOR=#663300][SIZE=3][COLOR=#663300]"...[/COLOR][/SIZE][COLOR=#000000][SIZE=2][B]When I look into the future, I am frightened,[/B][/SIZE][/COLOR] [B][SIZE=2][COLOR=#000000]But why plunge into the future?[/COLOR][/SIZE][/B] [B][SIZE=2][COLOR=#000000]Only the present moment is precious to me,[/COLOR][/SIZE][/B] [B][SIZE=2][COLOR=#000000]As the future may never enter my mind at all.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/B] [B][SIZE=2][COLOR=#000000]It is no longer in my power,[/COLOR][/SIZE][/B] [B][SIZE=2][COLOR=#000000]To change, correct or add to the past;[/COLOR][/SIZE][/B] [B][SIZE=2][COLOR=#000000]For neither sages nor prophets could do that.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/B] [B][SIZE=2][COLOR=#000000]And so, what the past has embraced I must entrust to God.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/B] [B][SIZE=2][COLOR=#000000]O present moment, you belong to me, whole and entire.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/B] [B][SIZE=2][COLOR=#000000]I desire to use you as best I can.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/B] [B][SIZE=2][COLOR=#000000]And although I am weak and small,[/COLOR][/SIZE][/B] [B][SIZE=2][COLOR=#000000]You grant me the grace of your omnipotence.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/B] [B][SIZE=2][COLOR=#000000]And so, trusting in Your mercy,[/COLOR][/SIZE][/B] [B][SIZE=2][COLOR=#000000]I walk through life like a little child,[/COLOR][/SIZE][/B] [B][SIZE=2][COLOR=#000000]Offering You each day this heart[/COLOR][/SIZE][/B] [B][SIZE=2][COLOR=#000000]Burning with love for Your greater glory...[/COLOR][/SIZE][/B][SIZE=2][COLOR=#000000]"[/COLOR][/SIZE] [/COLOR][/SIZE]But why the need for karma and reincarnation to embrace this truth of impermanence and timelessness? Catholic mystics have understood this truth while not believing in karma or reincarnation - and actually, while being theists! kaurhug All that we achieve in this short human lifespan will perish when the world ends. Our life will end, our children's lives will end, their grandchildren's lives will end, this land will in millions of years be different, this earth will one day be swallowed up by the sun and so on. But that's all in the future. Why casts our minds there? That is the reality of impermanence and it hits us hard. We cannot find satisfaction from attachment to any impermanent thing - I think perhaps even to the concept of reincarnation, which has no scientific proof, or of karma which falls short in my opinion of the true nature of reality. Lets seek for that which transcends this life, within our Ground where there is immeasurable being unrestrained by time or place, by goals or desires, by cravings, by projections and illusions and which is ever pure, still, unperturbed by outward interference and where the flame of ego is extinguished. Much love to you brother/sister Confused and sorry for making this so darn long! kaurhug [/QUOTE]
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