I am a free bird. I have no duties to perform or obligations to fulfill.
Name and form do not belong to me. I have forgotten the limitations imposed by knowledge. The eyes see, the ears hear, but there is no one who is looking, no one who is listening. The body and the brain are alive and alert, but there is no mind, no thinker. Thoughts come and go, but they never disturb the peace that is always present.
Like an actor on the stage, I perform whatever actions are required of me. Still I know that it is all a play. Who can say what life is? The body breathing, the senses responding—what could be more miraculous than this?
In this liberation, there has never been any bondage. I understand that there is nothing to understand. In this completeness, there has never been any incompleteness. I know that I am the One. There are no words to express what I am. Thought cannot encompass it. Reality cannot be broken into parts. Therefore, notions of this and that, I and you, are illusion.
This world appearance is like a ripple on the surface of the ocean. I feel the depth of that ocean, but I cannot describe it. The world of form appears, but has no substance. I see no separation anywhere. I do not know myself or experience myself as a separate person. I do not know or experience others as separate persons. I am friendly with everyone, because I do not feel that others are different from me. I invite everyone into my own happiness. There is only Oneness there, so how can you call it love? I do not want anything, nor do I not want anything. All seems good to me as it is.
My true nature is silence. I sit quietly in my Self. Those who need me will find me. I know that I will also receive whatever I need. I have no thoughts about the future. I know that there is never any moment other than this one.
This life around me is my Self. I meditate on that Self with devotion. The flame of life is always lit. I am the devotee and the object of devotion as well. I am both full and empty, foolish and wise, asleep and awake. I do not understand myself! I cannot locate myself anywhere in space. I cannot experience myself at any point in time. I do not exist in any shape or form, and yet I am. My being is a mystery to me!
I perceive beauty, but it is not projected by me, nor does it come to me from outside. Beauty and goodness are in the nature of existence itself. That is the conclusion I come to.
This human form has its weaknesses and strengths, but I know that I am not that. Therefore I am not constrained by the body. I do not conceive of myself as being like this or like that. Therefore I am not constrained by thought. I never experience a state in which I am not aware. Therefore I am not constrained by ignorance. I know that one day this body will fall away and all knowledge of the world will end. Therefore I am not constrained by knowledge.
Like a flag flying in the wind that shows that the wind is there, this world reveals my existence, but I remain unknown.
Is there anything I need to satisfy me? No, I am content with my Self.
'I' am not enlightened, awakened, or Self-realized. There is no one to whom those words can be applied.
May all those who seek the Self come to this understanding—that there is no path that leads to the one who is seeking. May all those who practice spiritual disciplines come to this understanding—that there is nothing you can do to become what you already are. May all seekers everywhere come to the end of their seeking and live freely in peace and happiness.
I am a free bird. I have no duties to perform or obligations to fulfill.
~
Writing: A Free Bird - Andrew Vernon
Art by: Unknown
One to One
Q: I have brief glimpses of this realm in moments of stillness, then I go to work and find myself in an environment which is neither royal nor peaceful and my serenity immediately disappears. How can I keep my equanimity permanently?
A: Everything that appears in awareness is nothing other than awareness, your co-workers, clients, superiors, absolutely everything, including the premises, the furniture and the equipment. First understand this intellectually, then verify that this is so. There comes a moment where this feeling of intimacy, this benevolent space around you no longer goes away; you find yourself at home everywhere, even in the packed waiting room of a train station. You only go out of it when you go into the past or the future. Do not stay in that hovel. This immensity awaits you right here, at this very moment. Already being acquainted with its presence and once having tasted the harmony underlying appearances, let the perceptions of the external world and your body sensations unfold freely in your welcoming awareness until the moment that the background of plenitude reveals itself spontaneously.
This reversal of perspective is analogous to that which allows the sudden recognition of an angelic face in a tree in one of those early twentieth century prints that so delight children. At first we only see the tree, then informed by a caption under the picture that an angel is hiding there, we begin a meticulous examination of the foliage until we finally see the angel which had always been right there before our eyes. What is important is to know that there is an angel, where it is hiding and to have once experienced the process by which the tree progressively loses its form to the point where the lines of which appearance is composed begin to appear as such and then recompose to confide the secret of the image to us. Once the way is paved, subsequent reversals of perspective are easier and easier until we see the angel and the tree simultaneously, so to speak. In the same way, once our true nature has been recognized, the remaining distinctions between ignorance and awakening become progressively blurred and yield to the fundamental suchness of being.
Q: Can you speak to us about the practice of living intuitively from the heart?
A: Do not be a person, do not be anything. Having understood that you are no one, you live the truth according to this knowledge. When the idea or sensation of being a person no longer bothers you, whether you are thinking or not, whether you are acting or not, you live the truth from the fullness of the heart.
Q: At this point, am I in right relationship with myself and with the world?
A: Oh, yes. You are in right relationship which is that of inclusion.
The world as well as your body and your mind are included in your true self. Love is inclusion. Understanding is an intermediate step, but the final destination, the true center, is the heart.
Q: Is the heart the place between this branch and the next, to use the analogy of the monkey?
A: If you agree to let go of the branch you are clinging to without catching hold of another, you fall into the heart. You have to accept dying, letting everything you know slip away, everything you have been taught, everything you possess, including your life or at least everything that you think at this stage is your life. This requires daring.
~
Writing from: Eternity Now -Francis Lucille
Art by: Gwen Meharg
Beautiful Words
I have discovered my deep deathless being:
Masked by my front of mind, immense, serene
It meets the world with an Immortal's seeing,
A god-spectator of the human scene.No pain and sorrow of the heart and flesh
Can tread that pure and voiceless sanctuary.
Danger and fear, Fate's hounds, slipping their leash
Rend body and nerve—the timeless Spirit is free.Awake, God's ray and witness in my breast,
In the undying substance of my soul
Flamelike, inscrutable the almighty Guest.
Death nearer comes and Destiny takes her toll;He hears the blows that shatter Nature's house:
Calm sits He, formidable, luminous.—Aurobindo
~
Art by: Gwen Meharg
Sights & Sounds
Bede Griffiths
Overwhelmed
3:26 min
Funny One
Copyright © Bob Seal
www.BobSeal.com
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