Friday, June 6, 2014
The Path of Wisdom
Jnana yoga - the Vedantic tradition, expects an aspirant to
demonstrate the following virtues and qualities:
a capacity for Discernment (viveka)
a degree of Dispassion (viragya)
a desire for Liberation (mumukshutva)
Tranquility (shamma)
Self-restraint (dama)
Inner renunciation (uparati)
Patience (titiksha)
Concentration (samadhi)
Faith (shraddha)
Thursday, June 5, 2014
And in contrast to my earlier post ....
therefore be careful you don't buy into every "wise"
saying ,,,, discern, make your own choice and then
do the best you can. Choices present themselves to
you every step of the way. Think through, think
through the alternatives in detail before making a
choice.
Patience
Patience is the test of character, courage, and understanding. It is
not the desire of the wise to build hastily, but rather, to build well.
"Psychic shysters" will go out of business when neophytes in
metaphysics understand the words of the Greek philosopher who
said,
"make philosophy thy existence." The old sage did not say
"thy life
work," or "thy trade" or "thy profession," or "thy effort
for a certain
number of years." He used the term "thy existence"
to imply that the
life of wisdom goes on from incarnation to
incarnation, becoming a part
of the very self , transcending all
limitations of time and space.
Students of the Ancient Wisdom
will still be students a million years
from now, for as all life is a
process of achieving, never consummated
by ultimate achievement,
so philosophy is a process of ever learning, an
experience to which
there is no conceivable end. The impatient novice
tries a new
system of "development" when "illumination" fails to arrive
after a
few months of study, but the soul that is wise with patience,
which
has risen above these illusions, rejoices in the perception of
some
small improvement at the end of many years of patient living.
"Patience" pages 51-52 from Words to the Wise - Manly P Hall
This is sooo true ...
So I have finally taken myself in hand and imposed
successfully a restricted diet leaving out rice mostly
and focusing on soups and salads. I do allow myself
some space. All things in moderation is my motto.
Tuesday, June 3, 2014
Denis Diderot
"it is only when the last monarch is strangled by the entrails
of the
last priest will mankind finally be truly free"
- Denis Diderot
My humble thoughts con't
Human beings are dual beings. They are moved from one
extreme to the other by their response and reactions to their
environment. They are beastly at the lowest expression and
godly in their highest expression. In this way they learn and
experience and grow and transform. As they grow and unfold
their inner faculties so too do they open up to wider fields
of experiences and expanded states of consciousness. They
now come into an awareness of things they did not know
existed and they are learning to respond to this.
At some point they realize that the physical plane is complicit
with contending and contradicting energies and manifestations
and will come to realize that they can forever be pulled hither
and thither between opposing forces or rise above them. While
they are being pummeled by opposing forces and before the
realization sets in that the way out is to rise above these forces
is a dark and very tumultuous path in human existence. It is the
dark night before the dawn.
At the break of dawn, at the point of realization comes a deep
yearning, a mustering of all of one's strength and aspiration and
in single pointed attention and concentration one makes the
attempt to rise above the murky depths below. Alas, one falls,
again and again as one tries to reach that divine light one perceives
far away but now attainable.
One is broken on the rocks of one's own making in ages past,
in past dark ages when one sowed and now must reap, which
hinders every step up that narrow path to the Light. For all accounts
must be settled, all dues paid down to the last cent, last atom.
And through all this one must not lose hope, lose steam, lose
step, lose that aspiration and single minded focus that is needed
for this arduous journey on that thin line of force thrown down
by one's soul by which one, holding firm, must climb. The path
that the soul illumines for the weary traveller, the quest, the Path
one must become oneself.
My humble thoughts
Natural religion is all humanity needs. By natural religion I mean
basic morality and respect for the divine in all human beings and
all of creation. Basic morality, in my eyes is the simple rendering
to others what one wants rendered unto oneself based on feel good/
feel bad experiences of life. I firmly believe that all human beings
(stripped of religion) have this in their core - their moral core.
Religion, I believe should have the sole purpose of building on that
core and building character through knowledge. But religions do not
do that. What they do is divide, me and thou, mine vs yours and bring
about much desecration of that moral core in humanity. Religion falls
into the unholy pit of desires which tear at this moral core as does
money and worldly possessions and becomes evil thereby. And human
beings deluded by desires and power (for control or for resources) fall
prey and become deluded thereby, losing their morality and sense of
righteousness.
Religion therefore could not have been given to humanity by someone
with their highest good in their minds; rather by those who choose to
rule them and have power over them and the Earth. It is given by those
more caught in the grips of power than the simple human being himself.
So it is imperative that we move out of the clutches of religion
and own our simple morality and live by its virtues. Knowledge
should be pursued so far as it is knowledge which frees one from
the prison of the mind but with caution that one does not get
imprisoned by knowledge which is mind itself - a paradox.
Every step of the way let experience prove knowledge learnt -
it should be demonstrable in one's own life.
It behooves every human being to acquire knowledge as it is a
means to enlightenment and expansion of consciousness which
lead to expanded being spiritually seen. It behooves him to use
knowledge for self and others for the greater good. It behooves
him to not get entrenched in value systems and form restricting
ideologies thereby. It behooves him to use knowledge but not
get used by knowledge. It behooves him to give up, relinguish,
sacrifice and move ever, ever upwards in the great quest of the
human life; the human experience, the human journey of self
discovery through complete relinquishing of the lower for the
higher.
Monday, June 2, 2014
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