The Seer

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The strange thing about suffering is that by taking it on you go through to the underlying peace that passes understanding. Some
people seem to suggest that when you see Who you are, there is no more suffering. On the contrary. In a way, it’s the exact opposite of that. You take it all on.

You take on the pain of creation, not only human suffering but the whole tragic history of the world and the suffering of other centuries — not because you are a saint or a good person. You have no option. That’s the way you are made, and that’s the way through.

I’m not saying, mind you, that a life consciously lived from its true Center will be safe or painless, easy or consistently joyful. Real adventure is made of sterner stuff. You embrace the suffering of the world no less than its splendor and its thrill.

The real joy, the joy that casts no shadow and knows no variation, has come through the fire. You could say that the remedy for suffering is homeopathic.

From: Open to the Source, by Douglas Harding.

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Enlightenment is the sudden recognition that non-duality is, has always been, and will always be the reality of our experience. Duality is an illusion. Consciousness is not private and personal, but impersonal, universal, and eternal. There is no limited personal entity, no conscious ego. The ego is a perceived object, not the all perceiving awareness.

~ Francis Lucille

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While many fans of Tolle’s say he has changed their lives, some Christians say his teachings are not compatible with the Bible. They accuse Tolle of promoting “The Doctrine of Demons.”

Dan Harris: Do you believe that Jesus is the son of God?

Eckhart Tolle: I believe that Jesus realized his oneness with God and he showed, what he attemped to do was show the way to all of us, how to realize our own onenes with God also, so he’s a precursor.

DH: But that’s different, I mean Christians, the whole point of Christianity is the divinity of Jesus Christ.

ET: Yes, but I believe that what Jesus Christ was really teaching was the divinity in everyone.

DH: But do you believe that Christianity is just as valid as say Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism?

ET: Yes, all religions at their core, they have a basic truth.

DH: But, many Christians (religionists) would vehemently disagree with that. They would say our religion is the one true religion.

ET: And that is called the ego, it says we are right and you are wrong. Religion for many people has turned into a form of ego, but for others it hasn’t, and for some people religion actually still works.

From the ABC News Sunday Profile Feb. 15, 2009.

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On her return home from hospital after having their first baby, a young wife suggested to her husband that he try his hand at changing the baby’s nappy. “I’m busy,” he said, “I’ll do the next one.”

The next time the baby was wet, she asked him if he was ready to learn how to change nappies. He looked puzzled for a moment and said, “Oh, I didn’t mean the next nappy … I meant the next baby!”

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Steam appears in space. The space gives rise to the steam and permeates it. The steam appears to be a separate form. But the transparent, spacious steam does not have an existence that is separate from or independent of the space permeating it. Just as the space gives rise to the steam, the steam will eventually release back into space without any need to manipulate it.

Likewise, there is no way to conceptualize one’s way into non-conceptual, empty awareness. Awareness gives rise to thought and permeates it. The thought appears to be a separate, solid form. But when awareness is awake to the thought, the thought is seen not to have an existence that is solid or independent of awareness. Just as awareness gives rise to the thought, the thought will eventually release back into awareness without any need to manipulate it.

Everything arises and falls back into its spacious source. If there is a seeing directly of what is being pointed to, all thoughts about enlightenment are seen to be forms that are not independent of awareness itself. Allow thought to arise and fall on its own.

In the space that is left when thought releases, your true non-conceptual identity reveals itself. In that recognition, you see that who you are — this spacious awareness — is there regardless of whethether there is thinking or no thinking.

~ by Scott Kiloby

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“Love is a state of Being. Your love is not outside; it is deep within you. You can never lose it, and it cannot leave you. It is not dependent on some other body, some external form. In the stillness of your Presence, you can feel your own formless and timeless reality as the unmanifested life that animates your physical form. You can then feel the same life deep within every other human and every other creature. You look beyond the veil of form and separation. This is the realization of oneness. This is love.”

~ Eckhart Tolle

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“He who holds fast to the Tao is able to manage very well in the world, for he knows how, from the beginning, all things manifest from the Tao. Thus the sage manages things without acting; teaches the Truth without words. The world continues to arise before him, but he does not reject it. He knows he is the Life of all things, but he does not own any of them. Therefore, he continues to act, but he remains unattached to his actions. His work is accomplished, but he lays no claim to it. The work is done, but he does not identify with it. Thus, his strength is never depleted.”

~ Chuang Tze

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Are you, the thinker, an entity separate from your thoughts?

Are you entirely dissimilar from your thoughts? Are you not your own thoughts?

Thought may place the thinker at a very high level and give a name to him, separate him from itself; yet the thinker is still within the process of thought, is he not?

There is only thought, and thought creates the thinker; thought gives form to the thinker as a permanent,separate entity.

Thought sees itself to be impermanent, in constant flux, so it breeds the thinker as a permanent entity apart and dissimilar from itself. Then the thinker operates on thought; the thinker says, “I must put an end to thought”.

But there is only the process of thinking, there is no thinker apart from thought. The experiencing of this truth is vital, it is not a mere repetition of phrases. There are only thoughts, and not a thinker who thinks thoughts.

~ by Jidu Krishanmurti

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A city dweller was visiting the centre of Australia for the first time, travelling by bus. He was not only unimpressed by the scenery, but sharply critical of Uluru (once named, Ayer’s Rock), The Olgas and Standley Chasm.

The bus driver, after hearing this constant stream of criticism through several days of travel, interrupted the disgruntled tourist to observe: “Listen, mate, if you haven’t got it on the inside, you can’t see it on the outside.”

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From the time we are infants and discover this body and mind that manipulates us and in turn is manipulated by us, we feel certain that this body and mind is ourself, is who we are. That identification becomes so strongly rooted in us, that never once do we doubt that we are this particular mind and body limited in space and time, and any suggestion to the contrary strikes us as bizarre and absurd. But, say the seers, the Buddhas, it is merely case of mistaken identity; that which is born, thrives for awhile, and then decays, is not who you are.

You are the one Mind of the universe, which merely witnesses all this world of changing forms, but is never affected by it. You are the Eternal, but you see this transient world of forms and think, “This is me!” It is like a man who, dreaming that he is being roasted alive, suffers the pain from the heat of the imagined flames; or like a man who is frightened by a snake which, on closer inspection, turns out only to have been a piece of rope.

It sometimes happens that a man, when bathing in the river, steps upon a wet rope and imagines that it is a snake. Terror will overcome him, and he will shake with fear, anticipating in his mind all the agonies caused by the serpent’s venomous bite.

What a relief does this man experience when he sees that the rope is no snake. The cause of his fear lies in his error, his ignorance, his illusion. If the true nature of the rope is recognized, his tranquility of mind will come back to him; he will feel relieved; he will be joyful and happy. This is the state of mind of one who has recognized that there is no selfhood (ego), and that the cause of all his troubles, cares, and vanities is a mirage, a shadow, a dream.

Here, is the essence of the teaching of all the seers. It should be apparent, of course, that the “selfhood” refered to here is not the Self (Atman) of the Upanishads, which is synonymous with the Eternal, but is the false sense of self, the ego. When the Truth is realized, the false idea of an individual self is dissolved, like the idea of the snake which is really a rope.

Then it is seen that, in reality, no separate self exists or ever existed; it is a mirage, a mistaken interpretation of one’s own awareness, which is really the immortal and eternal Self, the Absolute. Only that One is real; It is the Self of the universe, the universal Being which manifests as all beings, all things. It is the knowledge of this Self which is the source of the joy and happiness of the enlightened.

by S Abhayananda, from: History of Mysticism