The Seer

Two senior members of Rabbi Goldberg’s synagogue came to visit him and while they were waiting to be ushered into his presence, Mrs Goldberg brought them two cups of lemon tea and a plate with two cakes on it, one small, the other big.

“After you,” said one disciple to the other, offering him the plate.

“No, after you.”

“No, no, I insist, after you.”

“No, you take first.”

Eventually one of the two helped himself first — to the bigger cake.

The other was incensed: “What! You helped yourself first and took the bigger cake!”

“So?” said the other. “And if you’d chosen first, which cake would you have taken?”

“Why, the smaller one of course!”

“Well, what are you complaining about? You’ve got the smaller one!”

When you simply keep your attention on the truth of yourself, on this “unchanging,” (rather than on those things that change all the time) then all the habits to think a certain way will reveal themselves and show themselves to be mirages that give the appearance of suffering. You will find that daily life has always taken care of itself and will always take care.

As funny as that sounds, there is nothing you have to do, because you cannot control anything. There is not a you to do it! If you earnestly look for the you that is supposed to be doing everything, you will find there is nobody. This becomes your own experience that is absolutely unshakeable. Who is it that you think you are? Really check this out. You will make a fantastic discovery.

Somehow there has to be a ripeness to hear. If you have beliefs and are attached to them, then you cannot know this. When you are really willing to look for yourself, or if it happens by grace, then you realize! Once you know and you notice that different thoughts come up by themselves, you either keep returning to This that is unchanging, your own Self which is always present, or you investigate the thought/feeling and see if it is true and what you get for believing it.

You will find that something interesting starts to happen. We have a stream of thoughts which gives the feeling there is something wrong and that you need to get or do something to be happy. For example, that you have to meditate and search, work on yourself, or some strategy to try to become happy.

The moment you keep quiet with who you are, what is needed? You bathe in the ocean of love. This is too simple for most people.

From: It Happens By Itself, by Isaac Shapiro.

NB: Isaac is scheduled to be our next guest-teacher at Gurukula on Mon. Oct. 26, 7.00pm. For more info: >>>Click Here. In the meantime, you can listen to selected audio clips of Isaac.

The word “I” is the most frequently used word in the English langueage … or in any language. Usually, when people use the word “I”, they are refering to ‘me and my story’ — the conditioned entity — the fiction that I identify with as ‘me.’

But there is a deeper meaning to “I” — that is, the delusion of “I” — the delusion of (the egoic) self. For ultimately, “I” is a sacred word, (indicating the unborn, eternal Self).

This is what Jesus referred to when he said, “Before Abraham was, I am.” Not, “Before Abraham was, I was already.” There is neither ‘was’ nor ‘will be’ in “I”, it IS eternal Presence — eternal ‘Nowness’. And this is what the Upanishad refers to also — it is the Formless, it is the Unconditioned.

It (the infinite unconditioned “I”) is known, but never in a subject/object relationship — it cannot be known in such a way. So one could say, it cannot be known at all — you can only BE it. Realise that you ARE it, but cannot know it as you know an object in consciousnesss.

For thousands of years, people have been trying to make God into an object in consciousness — the idea of God, the image of God, statements about (God) etc.

This is why the Upanishad says, “Not what people here adore” — that is not God — not that which you see, not that which you hear, not that which you think, not (even) that which you believe in, because belief is thought.

You believe in God — that also is “Not what people here adore” — it is a mental idol — ultimately, it is an ideology.

You believe in God and the person next to you believes in Communism — two ideologies! So it’s “Not what people here adore” — not that which the mind thinks, not that which the mind believes, but That which makes all thinking, all believing, all sense-perception possible. The Formless, out of which all forms arise.

And That is the innermost “I”, the (formless) Essence that gets mixed up in your life with forms — that is, the deepest innermost Self.

Transcribed from a talk given by Eckhart Tolle in Rishikesh, India, as recorded in DVD series, Touching the Eternal — Disk 3. entitled: The Power of Not Knowing. This DVD series is avaiable through our online store. To read the complete article: >>>Click Here.

‘Deep calleth unto Deep’ … “There’s a message being piped into the mind from its source, and that message is the cause of the deepest inspiration. It’s the voice of nostalgia, calling us home. Home is not a place, but it’s where we came from … and actually have never left. The “return” pull is really a call to awaken to our true state of being. Sometimes a book or a person triggers an inspiration. At other times there’s no discernible catalyst, with the inspiration seeming to come out of nowhere. In any case, when it penetrates down to our deepest longing, it motivates action toward returning to – really, a recognition of – our changeless state of being.”

~ by Art Ticknor

Our dear friend, Catherine Ingram, has reported on the Vancouver Peace Summit, a three-day gathering of luminaries including the Dalai Lama, Eckhart Tolle, Maria Shriver, numerous Nobel laureates, and a couple dozen other presenters.

The Dalai Lama, Catherine said, emphasized again and again the need for women to have greater roles in leadership in all fields because, he said, they are “biologically” more nurturing and have a greater sensitivity to suffering. He feels that our educational system is the domain in which ethics and a connection to the totality of life needs to be taught now that there is a worldwide diminishment of the role of churches and the cohesion of families, arenas which once provided more spiritual and ethical sustenance. He also implored the educators and scientists attending the conference to introduce emotional and social intelligence in schools and for the media to start concentrating more on “good news,” stories that uplift our spirits instead of scaring us to death.

Eckhart Tolle, she said, suggested the introduction of “awareness” training in schools, not just as one of the subjects but as the main subject — “awareness of emotions, awareness of thoughts, of other human beings and their thoughts,” and for young people to learn to not equate their thoughts with who they are so that a child has a sense early on of his or her own nature and of the nature of the other children.

There was a moment I heard about, Catherine said, that I didn’t actually witness. After one of the sessions, the Dalai Lama and Eckhart Tolle held hands as they walked to lunch. It is an image I would have liked to imprint in memory, one that I might call upon in moments of distress. To most of the world, they are probably the two most respected spiritual leaders of East and West. But in these last days and over the many years I have known them both, they have shown themselves to be wise global citizens, beautifully human and simple, doing their part for a gentler world.

To live in the moment’s a well-worn routine
that most of the word has perfected;
for some, it’s the moment that’s already been,
for others, – the one that’s expected.

Yet no sort of magic can kindle anew
a past that is over for ever,
nor summon the future before it is due:
our moment is now – or it’s never.

So brief is the moment in which we may live,
and future or past it isn’t.
Whoever would know of what life has to give
must gratefully welcome the present.

~ Sent in by Peter Spinks — thank you Peter, who says, “I’m a lover of things Danish. On a visit to Copenhagen in 1975, a friend gave me “Grooks IV.” The author is Piet Hein — scientist, mathematician, inventor and poet … Danes rate him along with their butter, beer and bacon, among their national treasures.”

Mr Plotnik buttered a piece of toast during breakfast, then accidentally dropped it on the floor. He bent down to pick it up, and saw to his astonishment that it had landed buttered side up, which he knew from experience was against all

the laws of nature. Buttered bread or toast always fell buttered side down.

He was so puzzled by what happened that he went to see Rabbi Goldberg to whom he explained what had happened. “How can you explain such an astonishing and unnatural event?” he asked.

Rabbi Goldberg pondered a while, then told Mr Plotnik he would have to consult various authorities before he could give a definite reply. So would Mr Plotnik please come back in a week’s time.

The following week Mr Plotnik returned. “Well, Rabbi,” he said, “have you found the explanation of that extraordinary matter of the buttered toast?”

“Well,” Rabbi Goldberg replied, “I have consulted many books and talked with several colleagues. It seems that there is only one possible explanation. You must have buttered the toast on the wrong side.”

From David Daiches — thank you David.