Don’t Look For The Soul
June 28th, 2007
Meditation or emptiness of the mind is higher brain activity:
Thought to be the signature of neuronal activity that knits together far-flung brain circuits, gamma waves underlie higher mental activity such as consciousness. The novice meditators “showed a slight increase in gamma activity, but most monks showed extremely large increases of a sort that has never been reported before in the neuroscience literature”
Memory is stored all throughout the brain, not in one area, and the left and right hemispheres of the the brain have their own unique personalities and emotions, which compete for control over our actions. 3 million years of evolution has produced a highly complex thinking machine created to adapt and survive in the harshest environments. But is there more beyond the mind?
Enlightenment is often referred to as “death before death,” meaning the self/ego is killed off, and pure consciousness remains alive. Is this just turning off the higher mind functions and reverting to the hippocampus? Is this the level of consciousness we call the “soul”? Just that fact that we can turn off the memories that make up the mind through meditation means a true perceiver exists, one which is aware of all our thinking and actions, but remains silently watching. This awareness is pure energy, infinite, alive, and outside the notions of time or self.
If one searches for this awareness, it can not be found, for effort originates from the mind, and the mind is limited to grasping reality only through the use of memory or imagination. The awareness can see it’s own reflection, without the mind searching for it, by waiting for the mind to gently become still. This state is the foundation of spirituality - for example the root of the word Islam means surrender - as in surrendering to the state of peace outside the thinking mind, and the root of the name Buddha means awakening - as in awakening to a state outside the ego. Only when the mind isn’t looking for the soul does one find it.
Powerful Words
June 20th, 2007
If religiousness is all you are interested in, there is no need to look anywhere other than organized religion. The profound statements of the great teachers are not much different from each other. All I am saying is that looking to alien lands and religions does not mean anything. You learn new techniques, new systems, new phrases, and then you begin to think and speak in terms of this new language and probably you feel just great but basically it does not mean anything at all.
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So what is your goal? You must be very clear about it, otherwise there is no point in proceeding. It becomes a game, a meaningless ritual. What do you want to get? There is always somebody to help you get what you want for a price. You have foolishly divided life into higher and lower goals, into material and spiritual paths. In either case, great struggle, pain and effort is involved. I say, on the other hand, that there are no spiritual goals at all. They are simply the extension of material goals to what you imagine to be a higher, loftier plane.
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You are trying to establish relationships with people around you, with society, with the whole world. For some reason or other, the actual relationships are very ugly and horrible. Have you noticed that as long as our relationships can be directed to serve personal happiness there is no conflict? Every person is in the same situation. Relationships are harmonious as long as they serve one’s ideas of happiness. Because you cannot face the dynamism of relationships you invent sentiments, romance and dramatic emotions to give them continuity. Therefore, you are always in conflict.
-UG Krishnamurti from “The Natural State”
How to Loose Knowledge
June 19th, 2007
Often, the smartest people with the most analytical brains packed full of knowledge have the hardest time letting go of their ideas of the world that keep them from experiencing truth. These are the ideas that are inherently meaningless and empty at a spiritual level, since they filter truth through identity, culture, and ego. There is a deep thirst stemming from this search for knowledge and truth, that can only be satisfied when one lets go of all ideas of reality, not by seeking “more.”
The paradox is a certain amount of deep analytical thinking is often required before one can realize the futility of searching for meaning or peace through logic. One must first learn, realize the futility, and then unlearn everything (the hardest to do when you “know” something). The mind has to have enough information about the world, to see it’s own desperate selfish state, then choose to self-destruct.
This path is not about escapism from reality, it’s about finding peace by realizing the true reality of life, free from the self’s meaningless perspective.
I Am That
June 15th, 2007
Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
From The Book “I Am that”
Questioner: My own feeling is that my spiritual development is not
in my hands. Making one’s own plans and carrying them out leads
nowhere. I just run in circles round myself. When God considers the
fruit to be ripe, He will pluck it and eat it. Whichever fruit seems
green to Him will remain on the world’s tree for another day.Maharaj: You think God knows you? Even the world He does not know.
Q: Yours is a different God. Mine is different. Mine is merciful. He
suffers along with us.M: You pray to save one, while thousands die. And if all stop dying,
there will be no space on earth.Q: I am not afraid of death. My concern is with sorrow and suffering.
My God is a simple God and rather helpless. He has no power to compel
us to be wise. He can only stand and wait.M: If you and your God are both helpless, does it not imply that the
world is accidental? And if it is, the only thing you can do is to go
beyond it.Questioner: Without God’s power nothing can be done. Even you would
not be sitting here and talking to us without Him.Maharaj: All is His doing, no doubt. What is it to me, since I want
nothing? What can God give me, or take away from me?
What is mine is mine and was mine even when God was not. Of course,
it is avery tiny little thing, a speck the sense ‘I am’,
the fact of being. This is my own place, nobody gave it to me. The
earth is mine: what grows on it is God’s.
Earth 2020
June 14th, 2007
A World Full of Buddhas?
June 9th, 2007
Is the world ready or capable of supporting a world full of enlightened Buddhas?
The Modern World
Lets start with what the modern world is now - industrialization, capitalism, consumerism, nationalism - along with resource depletion, technological dependence, corporate power, wealth classicism, mass hunger, over population, globalization and worker exploitation.
The hunt for resources, exploration, and expansion has been there since the start of humanity. Now is no different, there are still wars caused by competition for limited resources and land, except we have greatly magnified our destructive tendencies. World-wide disaster has been made more imminent by the threat of nuclear war and environmental pollution.
Your Are a Computer
June 7th, 2007
We are biological computers, coded with a universal operating system at birth, and installing new programs as we learn in our environment. Many of the idiosyncrasies of humanity: faults, mental disorders, addictions - like computer bugs and crashes - are merely symptoms of running a complex set of programs.
Core emotions: love, anger, fear, ambition, ingenuity, lust, revenge, even morality - these are part of the core operating system that has ensured our survival through optimizing reproduction over time.
