Personal Reflections of a Meditative Nature

There is one moment, that moment is now. How is your moment? You see, this is forever. After the concept of birth and death is gone, after all the ideas about oneself are gone, the idea that remains is the ever-present state, the NOW. In this moment you are in pain, or perhaps, you are in pleasure. You have never been anywhere OTHER THAN this moment, nor will you ever be. This can feel sometimes limiting and other times liberating, but in the end...relaxing. This is all that was or will be. This is NOW.

In the flow of the stream, in the flow of eternal consciousness, the thing which prevents you from seeing this NOW are all the troubles and issues in your life. Had you the courage to flow with life, these would be seen as they are: ripples on the surface of consciousness.

No, no need to wander off into the woods, to do irrational or stupid things, no need to feed the dragon of fear and self-doubt. One simply has to live conscious and aware, willing to let go of the bad habits in order to enter the stream. The stream is Life, the stream is Self, have you secrets you are hiding? have you monsters under the floorboards? You know the type, the ones you knew you would never reveal, consider bringing them into the forefront, bringing them up for speculation, sort through the mechanism of being and thought.

I am moved by Cosmic Forces which exist beyond and Through me, but, they can only work through me if I put up no force, if I am willing to fulfill my own desires, pay attention to my heart, and stay aware. But most importantly, never to break this chain of knowing. The world is filled up, brimming with problems, issues, things which must be confronted. Are you willing to make the sacrifices necessary to give to people you hardly know? To be generous with people who might as well be your worst enemies, to be strong enough within yourself to be independent, to do things for yourself and not ask for charity?

"A day will dawn when you will laugh at your past efforts. That which will be the day you laugh is also here and now." - Ramana Maharshi

There is nothing to do because you are complete, here and now. Just be.

Introduction to Maharaj

Meditate on these teachings...roll them over and think about them....

Two Masters - Nisargadatta Maharaj, Bhagawan Nityananda

What is the connection between these two masters? Bhagawan Nityananda and Maharaj "met" that is to say Maharaj met Bhagavan, and he said about him:

"not a day goes by when I do not think of him"

It's hard to know exactly what these two have in common, but I found out about Bhagavan through Wolinksy. The video I posted of Wolinksy has Maharaj on the right side, and Bhagavan on the left. Their teachings were in the same vein, but different. BN had a teaching that was derived more from the siddha tradition while Maharaj's was unmistakably Advaita. The basic difference is that the Siddha tradition relies far more on the Guru and on the Self (including sometimes worship of the Guru) wereas Advaita is not about the personal as much. That's how I have interpreted it, anyway.

At any rate, what do these dead Indian men have to do with you, you ask? I am introducing them into your psyche because I plan to talk about each other teachings in order to go deeper into the ideas that their teachings contain and what the teachings reveal about yoga in general.

Here are some books I recommend about these two masters:
Bhagawan Nityananda: Nisargadatta Maharaj: Also please visit NetiNetifilms.com for copies of all of Stephen Wolinsky's work and other great work.

Further Explorations of the Bhagavad Gita

Further explanation of the Bhagavad Gita something which Maharaj called "an interesting story" (to paraphrase) remember to never take anything too much to heart...don't take anything too absolutely. Remember the words of the Buddha:

Forsake all dharmas (teachings)

I was trying to explain earlier about what the message of the Bhagavad Gita is...what I believe it is. My belief is that the Gita is essentially supposed to be about ACTION. It discourages inaction, but even more that the Gita is about bravery and facing one's fears. That's why Krishna told Arjuna to go into battle even though Arjuna didn't want to. For perfectly legitimate reasons, by the way...Arjuna didn't want to HURT anybody. Krishna said, do it, Arjuna...it makes no difference. That's why I love it, because it's a huge contradiction because in actuality India by and large is very peaceful. Krishna wasn't saying START a war, he was saying, just do your duty, and you'll find out sooner or later what the truth is and your confusion will subside. 

The reality is, this is a fact: we all have to face fears, we all have to do things which we don't really WANT to do, not only because they are difficult but because we're not sure if they're right or right for that particular moment. In light of this, we often hesitate, and Krishna says, like Nike, just do it. 

This is the essence of a new vocabulary term I'm going to introduce: Karma Yoga. Karma Yoga says: surrender the fruits of your labor to me (Krishna) and don't think about what you're doing, just do it. Don't worry about if it goes well, don't think about getting anything from it.....

Just do it. Do what you have to do. That's the teaching. That's all for today.