NMT (No-Me Teaching) new series 10:
Prior to presenting a Consciousness-Meditation offered by some Ramana Maharshi disciples, we share some thoughts.
Notes from a (contemporary) Spiritual Diary
How can I be certain that my inner true self is spiritual, perfectly happy, complete, & even divine? For one assurance, there is the consistent, unchanging testimony of the Wise throughout all the millennia, in disparate cultures & nations.
Closer to home, for just one more of many examples or instances of assurance, there is my own growing interest in deeper Reality, & my own expanding ability to see & comprehend the subtle inner Truth.
Only the Real in me is attracted to the Real. Only the Real in me intuits & catches a glimmer of profundity. Only the Real is capable of understanding Non-Dual Teaching in the many “secret” places in which it can readily be found.
Seek sincerely, reject ego-massaging half-truth, & be amazed at how fast & how deeply one can comprehend, can attain certainty. One can know with certainty, the inner, wordless answer to “Who am I ?”
How could it be otherwise ? Self-deception may have continued for eons & could continue for eons more. But the façade of Illusion, Maya, can crumble in the snap of a finger. Let the sleeper awaken! Be at Peace in Joy, Freedom, & Happiness.
Our inner core, our Being, is actually the unflinching, steady, Knowledge that “I exist.” That Knowledge shines, not within some individual “consciousness”, in & as non-multiple, universal, Non-Dual Consciousness.
Illusory self-focusing down as if an “island” of personal ego-self-consciousness in some oceanic Universe, a RWOT real-world-out-there – that Dream seems to crumple my innate Vastness into a tiny bubble of personal identity.
Appearing in the Waking State (other than the various dream-worlds) seems to recur over a short life-time of a century, or less, the outer RWOT seems to hold out hope of avoiding pain & promise of enjoyment – sensual, emotional, & mental. For fleeting moments, that World seems to deliver, but then it all slips away, just like youth & ultimately good health & life itself.
Relationships solidify life’s stability in family, friendship, & greater society. But one eventually takes wrong turns & misfortune ever threatens while “all good things must pass.”
Why ? Well of course “all things must pass,” good or bad, just like in nightly Dreams with similar trajectories. Those dramas may turn over rapidly until morning when they all vanish. Deep Dreamless Sleep is, however, uniformly filled with Peace (without details to remember). For that same Peace in the Waking State, we seek steady livelihood, steady relationships, & various acquisitions.
The Waking State body dies soon enough, even if there are fortunate outer circumstances, for a time, or perhaps even throughout most of that lifetime. But for most of humanity, even that is not the case & for many – far worse – dramatically so, or like those proverbial men who “lead lives of quiet desperation.”
Regardless, Love & Happiness, Peace & Freedom are only ever experienced “within”, in faint glimmers, short-lived flashes, or as God, Guru, one’s true Self, as Reality.
Consciousness-Meditation
“Shut your eyes. Let go of the idea of your own or control Consciousness. Let the infinite Consciousness be what it is without your trying to control it. Relax & observe Consciousness. Let go of everything & observe Consciousness. Relax completely & observe Consciousness. With as little effort as possible & with a gentle, kind, easy, relaxed approach, observe Consciousness. You just continue with Consciousness watching Consciousness. There are objects to see Consciousness is empty. There is no thing to observe in Consciousness. Just continue for the entire practice session watching your Consciousness. Only Consciousness watching Consciousness & nothing else.
[The above themes & 1600 pages more are freely available as perused or downloaded PDF’s, the sole occupants of a Public Microsoft Skydrive “Public Folder” accessible through:
http://jstiga.wixsite.com/nonduality\
or with Caps-sensitive:
Nonduality and Science 