Baba Muktananda’s Essential Teachings

  Portion of Baba’s talk in 1976:

Since early this morning you have been celebrating my birthday with great pomp, and all I can say is, I welcome you all with all my heart. On behalf of my birthday my wish to you is to have this awareness: "The Supreme Truth lies within me."  There exists only the pure and clean Self.  This awareness should increase in you. If not for others then at least for yourself. If you are embarrassed to think well of yourself, then what can I say?  Beautiful as you are and good as you are, why don't you think well of yourself?  

The scriptures say that the first thing you should do is make your outlook good, you should make your attitude clean and clear, and you should see with the eye of knowledge.  If you do this you will see nothing but supreme Brahman, supreme consciousness, and you will see God's flame within everyone, you will see everyone as the image of God.  You won't see people as merely human; you won't see negative things. 

The scriptures also say the world is as you see it (drishti shrishti).  So you should have a good outlook.  Your life is conditioned by your outlook.  And your fate after death is determined also by your outlook.  So the essence of it is that there is no created universe separate from you: it is your own creation.  The world is created according to your outlook.  The world is the play of consciousness and nothing but the play of consciousness. It is the abode of God's dance. And it is said that God has created this play and this dance. In the play different people put on different roles, some become friends, some enemies, they put on make-up and that lasts only for an hour or two. That is not reality. Reality is only the Self. Reality is consciousness. It is consciousness which has become a man and woman and performs its play. We all come from that one place and we will all go back to that one place.  

You can meditate and find the Supreme Lord right within your own heart free of charge.  And you can enjoy that bliss tax-free.  But, if the mind is deranged, the Self doesn't shine through. The Self is completely pure, it cannot be reached by the mind.  You can also observe that if the mind is bad for awhile, in the next moment it is good.  It is always changing. That's why you should not give any attention to the mind. You should remember your Self. And remember that the Supreme Truth is right within you.  Give up your notion of duality.  Have this awareness: the Supreme Truth lies within me. You can open your heart and see this truth. This is the truth: You should open your heart and see what lies within.  It resides within everyone.  It blazes in everyone's heart.

Sadgurunath Maharaj ki Jai!

You are the soul of the universe, we all are.

 

“You have to acquire that state in which you realize the entire universe to have become your body. The beasts, the birds, the mountains, the trees are your own self. The flooding rivers are like the circulation of blood in your arteries; the sun and the moon are like your eyes. It is your own heart that is throbbing in the thorax of all. Efface the idea that you are something separate or different from others. Only one conscious power is working throughout the universe. The power, force, energy, nature, or call it God or Brahman, is all-pervading and interpenetrating.”

“You have to realize this universal unity. As a matter of fact, you are really one with it. Rama repeats it again and again so that you may grasp the truth thoroughly and practice it in your daily life. Without this there is no success or realization of Self or God. It is this realization of spiritual unity with all which is the ultimate aim of the true religion. We have to achieve this realization by all possible means.

If you purify your heart by doing away with malice, jealousy, hatred, spite, rivalry, etc., and practice to love all like your own Self, forget and forgive those whom you consider your enemies, opponents, fault-finders and adversaries, you can attain this highest stage of realizing your oneness with all.“

Swami Rama Tirth

Ode to our being, of light!

 ODE TO OUR BEING OF LIGHT

TO the Being from which we are FROM 

A realm of light, beyond all form, yet includes all forms, as itself. Ourselves.

We are emanations of our own selves, our soul, our essential nature. The soul is the soil of our expression, all pervasive awareness emerging as a form. The intelligence of nature, as the higher self, the soul of all has become each and every one of us, ourselves.

Whatever I was before I was born, is still me. Me. 

As I am aware of the connection to all of us who share this experience, I see we, and when I perceive something, I am in relationship with it, so I must be a part of we, and then what has become we is also a part of me.

Two aspects of being, one reality, manifest and unmanifest.

I can not unsee the realm of light which contains all of the contrasts of dark and light, images and experiences, all within a whole, as if I am dreaming your dreams, and you mine, through the one we are emanations of.

I love you, is what we say, yet there is this recognition in saying that, that we are connected in love.

Lao Tzu ~ The Highest Teachings ~Taoism

Abhinavagupta ~ 𝐋𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐋𝐢𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 (𝐉𝐢𝐯𝐚𝐧𝐦𝐮𝐤𝐭𝐢) “Fifteen Verses of Wisdom” (Bodhapañcadaśikā)

Wherever you find yourself  

Stay  

Go neither towards the outside or the inside

Let the infinite variations of becoming be  cast aside by the glowing of Consciousness alone

Absolute Consciousness is manifest here in  every circumstance of daily life because it is everywhere full and perfect

Consciousness is said to be the cause of all things because it is everywhere emergent as each manifest entity

Straight away remove yourself from the field of spiritual progression  stay away from contemplation and skillful  discourse do not do research or meditate on the divinities and stop concentrating and reciting textbooks

Tell me, what is the absolute nature of reality which allows no room for doubt? Listen carefully  

Stop holding on to this or that  

Inhabit your true absolute nature and peacefully enjoy the essence of what it is to be alive

The ultimate Consciousness is always present everywhere  

It is beyond space and time with no before or after  

It is undeniable and obvious  

So what can be said about it?

Drama is like a dream  

It is not real but it is really felt

Nothing perceived is independent of perception  

and perception differs not from the perceiver  

Therefore the universe is nothing but the... perceiver

The existence or non-existence of phenomena within the domain of the empirical cannot be established unless they rest within consciousness  

In fact phenomena which rest within Consciousness are apparent and the fact of their appearing is itself  their Oneness with consciousness because Consciousness is nothing but the fact  of appearing

The group of subjects, the various means of knowledge, the multiple kinds of knowledge and the objects of knowledge — all this is consciousness alone

The Supreme goddess is the absolute freedom of consciousness which assumes all these forms  

Both characteristics Unity and diversity are found in that which does not fall to the level of an object but which because it is consciousness is the supremely real light  

It has only one characteristic namely Consciousness which is the perfect medium of reflection  

This is what experience tells us

The Truth is therefore this:  

the Supreme Lord manifests freely all the varied play of the emissions and absorptions in the sky of his own nature

The light is a supreme reality  

It encompasses all the categories from Earth to Paramshiva  

While the unfolding of the reflective awareness of the heart — of "I" Consciousness — within it distinguishes between them

The extremely pure conscious reality transcends all talk of succession and its absence...

Immersing themselves in the Supreme reality clearly aware that Consciousness is all things the Yogi's Consciousness vibrates — this vibration  

is the Great pervasion

The Yogi should abide firmly fixed in their  

own nature by the power of the exertion of their expanding  consciousness — thus they are established on the plane of bliss relishing the objects of sense that spontaneously  appear before them  

Perfected yogis are ever steadfast in this  

the Supreme mudra  

the perfect and unobstructed expansion of  

the awakened

This Bliss is not like the intoxication of  

wine or that of riches nor similar to Union with the Beloved  

The manifestation of the light of consciousness  

is not like the ray of light from a lamp, sun, or Moon  

When one frees oneself from accumulated Multiplicity  

the state of bliss is like that of putting down a burden  

The manifestation of the light is like the  

acquiring of a lost treasure  

The domain of universal non-duality  

Other achievements are in vain if one has  

missed the Supreme reality  

But once one has attained this reality  

there is nothing left one could desire

There is a Radiance that Remains undimmed  

through all moments of light and darkness  

The one Within   the end of all light and all Darkness...

That one is the highest divinity

The innate essence of all beings and states  

For all that comes into being is nothing but  

the expression of its Sovereign power  

The Goddess never wants to be separate from  

the one who holds her  

They are eternally one being as  

Inseparable was fire and its heat

This absolute consciousness which accomplishes  

what seems impossible has autonomous sovereign, awake, awareness   as its nature

It is said that the defining feature of insentience  

is a limited power of Illumination  

So Awareness is distinct from insentience  

by the fact that it is unlimited

The cycles of creation and dissolution are  

innate to awareness existing as subdivisions of its innate power  

of freedom as expressions of its true nature  

For within these cycles, there exists an infinite  

variety of painful and pleasurable worlds  

Higher, lower and parallel to this one  

The state of being ignorant of all this is itself a construct of that freedom  

The cyclical flux of this autonomous being is indeed terrifying to those who are unconscious  

Recognition of the nature of reality is divine liberation

That state of fullness experienced by the awakened ones is taught to be Living Liberation  

These two states — bondage and liberation — both derive from the nature of the highest divinity  

they are indivisible  

one implies the other  

For there can, in Reality, be no division  

within the Highest Divinity

The wordless

 https://youtu.be/mUprk9F3A08?si=pNH0XJKThx7bY82A

Deep Ecological thought

 “Deep ecology does not separate humans trom the natural environment, nor does it separate anything else from it. It does not see the world as a collection of isolated objects but rather as a network of phenomena that are fundamentally interconnected and interdependent. Deep ecology recognizes the intrinsic values of all living beings and views humans as just one particular strand in the web of life. It recognizes that we are all embedded in, and ultimately dependent upon, the cyclical processes of nature. This deep ecological awareness is now emerging in various areas in our society, both within and outside of science.

“The ecological paradigm is supported by modern science, but it is rooted in a perception of reality that goes beyond the scientific framework to an awareness of the oneness of all life, the interdependence of its multiple manifestations, and its cycles of change and transformation. Ultimately, such deep ecological awareness is spiritual awareness. When the concept of the human spirit is understood as the mode of consciousness in which the individual feels connected to the cosmos as a whole, it becomes clear that ecological awareness is spiritual in its deepest essence, and it is then not surprising that the new vision of reality is in harmony with the visions of spiritual traditions.”