Weird Dream

I was on a bus about to go down a steeeep hill. I commented to the passenger next to me, "It's funny, this same thing of going down a steep hill happens often while I dream at night." Later this morning, when I awoke and knew that all the above was a dream, it was just crazy how I believed (at the time) that the entire scene was reality.

Non-separate

You have always known your Self to be One, not separate.

Separation is a concept - that an independent entity exists (as your perceived center) where all objects are outside of it. Yet at the same time it is also believed that "I am simply one object of many", "in the world", thus percieving yourself as an OBJECT. "I am the body", you say. Neither perspective is correct.

It is not possible, for an object cannot know its absence! Yet when you sleep there is no self at all, no body, no objects and no universe - each of us is aware of this fact of total absence within our very daily experience, it CANNOT BE DENIED! How else can a self exist unless on a substratum of 'non-self', which is nothing at all but pure, impersonal Absoluteness.

Thus, it remains to be said that the body, "me", objects and the universe is within the Absolute - what else is left, if anything? Without the root thought "I", there can exist no concepts about separation. If doubt is perceived, then see no entity separate from the energy present, for this energy is one with the Absolute Awareness.

Can it now be clear that separation, conceptuality, reason, desire, etc... is merely superfluous?

-=- Last Words of Nisargadatta Maharaj -=-

CONSCIOUSNESS AND THE ABSOLUTE: JUL 29, 1980

Q: Why did this consciousness arise?
M: You are both the question and the answer. All your questions come from your identification with the body. How can any question relation to that which was prior to the body and consciousness be answered? There are yogis who have sat in meditation for many, many years seeking answers to this question, but even they haven't understood it. And yet you are complaining.
Q: It is a great mystery.
M: It's a mystery only to the ignorant. To the one not identified with the body, it is no longer a mystery.
Q: Maharaj cannot convey it to us?M: I keep telling you but you don't listen.Q: Does Maharaj see us as individuals?
M: There are no individuals; there are only food bodies with the knowledge `I am'. There is no difference between an ant, a human being, and Isvara; they are of the same quality. The body of an ant is small, an elephant's is large. The strength is different, because of size, but the life-force is the same. For knowledge the body is necessary.
Q: How did Maharaj get the name Nisargadatta?
M: At one time I was composing poems. It flow out continuously until my guru cautioned me, " you are enjoying composing these poems too much; give them up!"What was he driving at? His objective was for me to merge in the Absolute state instead of reveling in my being-ness. This was the way I realized knowledge, not through mental manipulation. My guru said: "this is so, and for me, it was finished! If you continue in the realm of intellect you will become entangle and lost in more and more concepts. Consciousness is time flowing continuously. But I, the Absolute, will not have its company eternally, because consciousness is time bound. When this being-ness goes, the Absolute will not know `I Am". Appearance and disappearance, birth and death, these are the qualities of being-ness; they are not your qualities. You have urinated and odor is coming from that-are you that odor?
Q: No, I am not.
M: This being-ness is like that urine. Can you be that being-ness?
Q: Absolutely not!
M: You required no more sadhana. For you, the words of the Guru are final.

cease branching

Discuss it as you may, how can you even hope to approach the truth through words? Nor can it be perceived either subjectively or objectively. So full understanding can come to you only through an inexpressible mystery. The approach to it is called the Gateway of the Stillness beyond all Activity. If you wish to understand, know that a sudden comprehension comes when the mind has been purged of all the clutter of conceptual and discriminatory thought-activity. Those who seek the truth by means of intellect and learning only get further and further away from it. Not till your thoughts cease all their branching here and there, not till you abandon all thoughts of seeking for something, not till your mind is motionless as wood or stone, will you be on the right road to the Gate. -Huang Po

Do not shut out reality...

If, conceiving of the phenomenal world as illusion, we try to shut it out, we make a false distinction between the "real" and the "unreal." So we must not shut anything out, but try to reach the point where all distinctions are seen to be void, where nothing is seen as desirable or undesirable, existing or not existing. Yet this does not mean that we should make our minds blank, for then we should be no better than blocks of wood or lumps of stone; moreover, if we remained in this state, we should not be able to deal with the circumstances of daily life or be capable of observing the Zen precept" "When hungry, eat." Rather, we must cultivate dispassion, realizing that none of the attractive or unattractive attributes of things have any absolute existence.

Nansen (748-834) was a disciple of Basso and the teacher of Joshu. The following exchange occurred when Joshu was a young man:
Joshu: What is the Way?
Nansen: Ordinary mind is the Way.
Joshu: Shall I seek it?
Nansen: No, if you seek it you cannot find it.
Joshu: Then how shall I know the Way?
Nansen: The way is not a matter of knowing or not knowing. Knowing is delusion; not knowing is confusion.
The true Way is as vast and boundless as outer space. How can you talk about it in terms of right and wrong?
At this Joshu became enlightened.

Since all Dharmas are immanent in our mind there is no reason why we
should not realize intuitively the real nature of Suchness. The
Bodhisattva Sila Sutra says, "Our Essence of Mind is intrinsically pure,
and if we knew our mind and realized what our nature is, all of us would
attain Buddhahood."

-Hui Neng

"When our mind works freely without any hindrance, and is at liberty to 'come' or to 'go', we attain Samadhi of Prajna, or liberation. Such a state is called the function of 'thoughtlessness'. But to refrain from thinking of anything, so that all thoughts are suppressed, is to be Dharma-ridden, and this is an erroneous view."

— Hui-Neng

While washing the dishes one should only be washing the dishes, which means the while washing the dishes one should be completely aware of the fact that one is washing the dishes. At first glance, that might seem a little silly: why put so much stress on a simple thing? But that's precisely the point. The fact that I am standing there and washing these bowls is a wondrous reality. I'm being completely myself, following my breath, conscious of my presence, and conscious of my thoughts and actions. There's no way I can be tossed around mindlessly like a bottle slapped here and there on the waves.

- THICH NHAT HANH