Sangha of Auspicious Companions

Live As You Like But Renounce Internally

–Siddharameshwar Maharaj

Reality is One and only One, without any duality. Reality is only One, besides It, nothing else exists. Then why does It appear as a universe? There is only gold in various ornaments, nothing else. Later on, they are named as bracelets, bangles and necklaces, but their base is just gold and nothing else.

Reality is forever shining but it is swallowed by the "I". Ego is not Reality, but appears as such. Everything is consciousness. It is not necessary to say, "I am Reality." Birth and death belong to this "I". The five elements, as well as consciousness, are just as they are, but the subtle body which calls itself "I" and which is full of desire eventually succumbs to death. When someone tells us, "Wamanrao has passed away", it means the name is dead. He came therefore he died. Eradicate from your mind that you are some particular "I". That is the sign of "knowledge". He who says, "I am the one who experiences" is swallowed by demons and still remains within the illusion.

It is the hand that lifts, but you say "I lift". The eyes see but you say, "I see". The nose smells, but you say, "I smell". All this is the power of the Self and yet you say, "I did it". That power belongs to God. Who is this ego arrogating "I"? (It) has no place in the palace, but once admitted inside, (it) overrules the king and affirms (its) own existence. But after some enquiry, this ego’s existence is easily disproved. Then the king once again affirms, "I am Reality." There is one thing about this condition – there is bliss. If there are two, then there is pain. Where there is One, there is bliss.

An aspirant invariably faces the question, "Shall we continue to run our household or shall we leave it altogether?" Whether one runs a household or leaves it, it accounts to nothing. There is no sense in wearing a holy basil leaf garland around the neck and yet having a rush of anger in the heart. If one is not attentive to one’s inner Self, what is the use of the saffron colored robe? The trees, tigers, beasts and birds do not run a household, but does this mean that they have become saints? What is the use if one is not attentive to one’s inner Self? One should be alert. The objective knowledge should prove to be untrue. All the affairs we are conducting in the world should prove themselves to be untrue and that which has been taken as untrue should be experienced as Truth.

What is the use if one is not detached internally? The attitude must change. To know that all this [moving manifest mundane existence] is false is an act of great bravery. One should be detached within oneself. Live as you like but renounce internally.

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Many moons ago, a couple friends got together to sit in silence for an hour, and share personal aha-moments. The ripples of that simple practice have now spread to millions over 20+ years, through local circles, weekly podcasts and more.

The need for connection and community is primal, as fundamental as the need for air, water, and food.

– Dean Ornish –

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Happiness is like a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.

– Nathaniel Hawthorne –

Liberation

–Salvador Poe

Liberation is not a new state of feeling good. Whatever state or feeling you may have, pleasant or unpleasant, will come and go. Liberation is not a final state or experience where you are always resting in a certain feeling or emotion. Liberation is a reconciliation that says: what is, is; it cannot possibly be any other way than it is right now; and there’s no one here to do anything about it. Resistance and arguing end when this is reconciled. It’s the resistance and the arguing that’s ego. It’s the one who believes they’re the doer and there’s something they can, should or need to do about this. That’s a myth; it’s not actually true. That’s a wave that comes and goes.

Sounds like there are circumstances happening, and the body-mind organism is doing its job. There’s nothing wrong. If thoughts and emotions are coming up because of circumstances, that’s not wrong, that’s right. If one of your family members is sick, and there’s a lot of fear and worry, that’s not wrong, that’s right. That’s what this body-mind organism does. If the thought comes in, “It’s wrong that I have this fear and worry, and I have to get liberated,” it creates a so-called problem. The idea that you’re going to get liberated is causing you a lot of struggle.

Yes, and I keep hearing that there will be a feeling of deep peace.

You say that because you think liberation is peace and feeling good. Like all of us, you want to feel good. It’s okay, but let’s just be honest about it. You say you want liberation, but see, that’s not what you want. What you’re saying is, “I don’t care about liberation, I want to feel good.” Peace and feeling good are states and they come and go. Freedom is free of states. Liberation is not caring what particular state is coming or going. You have to be honest — you don’t want liberation.

But how about the peace you’re talking about?

Peaceful feelings come and go. The peace I’m speaking about is just the reconciliation that what is, is. Sometimes it feels good and sometimes it doesn’t feel good. That’s life, and you are reconciled with it. In that reconciliation, is an ease of being. It is the end of arguing, and with that then yes, you are more and more at peace and less and less in the mess of mental agitation.

Everyone, not just you, has this tenacious idea that liberation is some feeling state. Everyone! The idea may sound something like, “There’s some state of feeling good I’m going to attain, and when I do, I’m always going to feel good,” or “There’s some state of no thoughts that I’m going to attain, and when I do, there are never going to be thoughts.” Coupled with the idea of a specific state is the expectation, “When is it going to happen?”

If you want freedom, have a holiday, now. See that you are free, now. On a holiday, freedom is known.

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Many moons ago, a couple friends got together to sit in silence for an hour, and share personal aha-moments. The ripples of that simple practice have now spread to millions over 20+ years, through local circles, weekly podcasts and more.

There is something quite magical in watching a family of elephants, gorillas or giant forest hogs emerge from the forest edge and bask in sunlight and social opportunities before slipping back into the cool shade of the forest interior.

– Vicki Fishlock –

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Are languages then just a collection of words, syntax, and semantics? I’d like to sometimes see them as seeds and sometimes as fields – alive as the minds, tongues, throats, bodies, and air they pass through; germinating, growing roots, bearing fruit, evolving like beings.

– M. Yuvan –

Love Is The Highest Form Of Acceptance

–Stephen Levine

The mind likes and dislikes all day long, judges and complains, even in its sleep. It complains about where we’ve been and where we’re going. It judges those we meet along the way, family and neighbors, coworkers and bosses, friends and lovers, spouses and ex-spouses and all it feels have not given us our due.

We lament not being loved.

We complain about how we feel, about how we look, too cold, too hot. The porridge is never quite right.

We complain all day about being alive. We complain all night about death.

We complain from want and alternately brandish and are embarrassed and embossed with remorse by desire. One moment the mind says, “ Have a hot fudge sundae!” and fifteen moments later, as you wipe your mouth says, “ I wouldn’t have done that if I were you!” Conflicting desires, it’s the story of our lives.

We seldom notice the outreach of desire until we find ourselves leaning into the refrigerator or, closer to our sorrow, being someone we don’t even like in order to get what we want.

But desire is not, as rumor would have it, “bad” it is just painful. It engenders a feeling of not having until we get what we want and then complains about having it too briefly or not quite as advertised in the catalogue of our desires. It is the ache of wanting and impermanence in the gut and at the center of the chest.

Everyone has a desire system which leads the mind ever forward. Even Jesus, even the Dalai Lama, even Gandhi had desire. At the very least for the welfare of others, at the most to continue to live and perhaps at times to evade pain.

Ironically the greater the satisfaction the greater the potential for dissatisfaction, the deeper the rope burns and scars as what we hold to is pulled beyond our grasp by impermanence. Desire out lives memory.

Which is not to say we must stop desire no matter how strong our desire to do so may be on occasion, instead that we meet it with compassion and a satisfaction in momentary beauty.

Of course the problem is not just desire but our attachment to its continual satisfaction which turns desire from an object of awareness to an engorgement of consciousness. We are addicted to satisfaction.

One of the great ironies of desire is that quality we call satisfaction only arises in the momentary absence of desire. The desire that so often keeps us superficial and unable to experience what some acknowledge as the deepest satisfaction is a glimpse of the luminosity exposed when the clouds of desire momentarily part. The “great satisfaction”. This is not philosophy, this is just the design of our very human architecture. When we watch it for ourselves we see how it is the momentary absence of desire that gives rise to the state of satisfaction.

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Many moons ago, a couple friends got together to sit in silence for an hour, and share personal aha-moments. The ripples of that simple practice have now spread to millions over 20+ years, through local circles, weekly podcasts and more.