~ Contribution to my Pages ~ 


The following was received from one of the Members on my Cookie List.
I found it so good that I put it on my pages...

Thank you Tom!

Gerardus

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Sathya Sai Baba:
As long as you have attachment to your body and remain steeped in
body consciousness, you will not be able to understand and reach the
formless aspect of the Supreme. Therefore, as long as you remain in
body consciousness, and think you have a particular form, then you
must also visualize God with a particular form...in truth, the whole
world is the form of God...

Bashar:
Happiness is not conditional!!! Laugh, BE happy. As soon as you do,
you'll match that frequency. You don't need to wait for a reason to be
happy...create the effect of being happy and you will attract into
your lives all of the causes to support the happiness you have
created...it's that simple!!!

Baba:
The main obstacles to devotion which may enter your being are
jealousy, anger, and greed. If you develop hatred towards anyone, you
will be hating the very Lord whom you worship. Without uprooting the
weeds from the field, the seeds will not yield a good crop. In the
same way, without removing the weed of EGO from within your heart, all
attempts at spiritual practice will be useless. The most important
thing to be learned on the path of devotion is that you should not
only love God but also all other beings, treating everyone as God.
Worshipping God while harming others cannot be called devotion. It
only reveals the depths of one's ignorance. Such people will never
progress on the spiritual path.

Meditation is the steady, uninterrupted practice of contemplating God.
Thinking of God now and then cannot be called meditation. Meditation
is thinking of God at all times, under all circumstances. It is a
continuous, unceasing process...

You start off by seeking the underlying everything in existence.
Then, having become aware of it, you live your life by applying this
great truth to all your daily activities...

To permanently acquire peace of mind and the state of unending inner
joy, you have to first enter into the stage of inquiry and give up all
attachments to the world.  These days, the so-called spiritual seekers
are first entering into the stage of attachment, and later they
attempt to enter into the stage of inner inquiry. They call each other
brother and sister and aspire (pretend) to practice unity awareness,
while at the same time taking on new worldly attachments. At best,
they can only be described as part-time devotees.

The five senses and the sense objects we perceive with them
represent this dog of illusion which will distract you and keep you
from reaching God. Only when you have concentration of mind will you
be able to surrender fully to God. What you are fighting most of the time
is your own weaknesses, your negative habits, your limitations (beliefs).

Once you surrender yourself fully to the Lord and offer everything up
that is to be done, as well as when and how it is to be done at the
Lord's feet, then he will take care of everything; to achieve this
level of surrender, there can be no trace of ego left. There should be
no sense of yourself remaining...

It is difficult to eliminate the ego as long as you differentiate your
own will from the command and will of the Lord. You have doubts and
are unable to surrender because you see others and the world as
separate from God. It is only when you recognize that God is dwelling
in all people everywhere in the form of an ever-luminous light shining
in the temple of their hearts that you will be able to eliminate your
egoism and surrender fully to God...

This body was not so easily obtained by you. Because of the
innumerable merits and numerous births in other forms, you have been
able to obtain this human body. To use it improperly is to waste the
merits you have earned in all the countless lives...

The six inner enemies of man are lust or desire, anger or hatred,
greed or possessiveness, attachment or infatuation, pride or
arrogance, and envy or jealousy. Nowadays most of the world's
prayers are filled with pompous words, devoid of any feeling.
Inside the mind there is one thing, and on your lips there is
something else. We must develop forbearance which is a serene
patience and self-restraint under all circumstances, giving good to
all, even to those who may wish to harm you. Forbearance is the
heart of righteousness, the very essence of ancient wisdom,
contentment, non-violence in practice, and it is compassion...

You must deeply pine to see the Lord and ask for it every day...
Affirm "the broadmindedness of the Lord is within me... all selfless
feelings of the Lord are within me... The unbounded Love of the Lord is
within me"...

One of the most important disciplines for coming into union with God
is control of the tongue. This must be exercised in the areas of food
and speech... if the tongue is brought under control, the other sense
organs will come in line by themselves... should you not sacrifice
everything for the sake of reaching your higher self? According to the
Gita, maintaining control over the tongue by taking in pure food in
limited quantities, as well as controlling speech is absolutely
essential for the success of a devotee. Always ask "Is this food pure,
or will it disturb or lower my consciousness?"
We also need to look at purity of the vessels, and the person cooking
the food. Therefore, just before taking your food, you should pray and
offer the entire meal to God in order to cleanse and purify it.

Right from the moment you get up in the morning until you go to bed at
night you go on talking, if not outwardly, then within yourself (inner
dialogue). The volume might be turned down, but nevertheless the talk
will be going on all the time. The "radio" inside just keeps playing
non-stop and the valuable spiritual energy that is within you gets
"wasted", just as electricity is consumed in the case of a radio left
on, whether it is playing loudly or softly. The energy just drains
away. The most common cause of premature old age and senility is this
talk. You must develop the habit of inner silence. Actually the two
functions of the tongue are closely related. Too much talk leads to
unnatural hunger, which then leads to taking of more food. Because of
this excess food, feelings will arise which will express themselves as
more talk... in this way controlling the senses becomes an almost
impossible task...

Modern man takes in food which is full of dross and which, in turn,
generates feelings that are saturated with the quality of Rajas,
excessive nervous energy and activity, which promotes apprehension
and anger. As a result, he has no chance to experience his true nature
which is even-minded and pure...

The Lord declares in the Gita "When you constantly think of me with
love, I will bless you with the gift of spiritual discrimination. This
will lead you to permanent union with me... I promise this to you..."

Ceiling on Desires Program: cut down on ways in which we are wasting
money, food, time and energy... this will reduce attachments...

Five Human Values to practice daily are Sathya (truth), Dharma (right
action), Prema (love), Shanti (peace), and Ahimsa (non-violence). In
this way we can become free from guilt, self-hate, regret, and other
happiness destroying attitudes...

When you rise after meditation do you see everyone in a clearer light
as endowed with divinity?  If not, meditation is a waste of time. Do
you love more, do you talk less, do you serve others more earnestly?
These are the signs of success in meditation. Your progress must be
authenticated by your character and behavior. Meditation must
transmute your attitude towards beings and things, else it is a hoax.
Even a boulder will, through the action of sun and rain, heat and
cold, disintegrate into mud and become food for a tree. Even the
hardest heart can be softened so that the divine can sprout therein...

The divine is the reality of everything, and where there appears to be
duality is simply an illusion. Let me not be deceived by that
illusion; in my body I have to act in the dual world. If I fail to do
so, I will be quickly destroyed. But in my mind and understanding, I
can be quite free of that illusion and realize that God is everything...

All sorts of thoughts arise in our minds due to life and the vital
breath. Thoughts arise and these thoughts constitute the mind.
Thoughts are desires. A desire is just a thought stuck in a groove,
and you have to get rid of that thought by denying life to it. But, as
it is now, the mind has all these desires and it goes ahead on its
own, a completely separate empire, ruling its own roost, doing what it
wants. Likewise the intelligence gets interested in a subject, and
takes over and drives us this way and that way, as if only the
intelligence existed...

The sages tell us that when we study the scriptures, the Vedas, that
the principle obstacle standing in the way of our liberation now is
that we do not reflect on the basic principles of human life and human
evolution...

(From Bag Gita) Hazardous and slow is the path to the unrevealed,
difficult for physical man to tread. But they for whom I am the goal
supreme, who do all the work renouncing self for Me and meditate on
me with single-hearted devotion, these will I swiftly rescue from he
cycle of birth and death to fullness of eternal life in me...

If every action is dedicated to God, then we have stepped out of the
cycle of karma, birth, and rebirth and into the light, the beauty and
endless joy of our real nature, the 'liberated' state...

In this physical world, everything that appears to be not me is me,
and everything that appears to be me is not me...


H P Blavatsky:
You are the architect of your destiny. Birth and death are merely two
events in life. You have forgotten your essential nature and that is
the cause of your suffering. When you become aware of this, you are
liberated...

Self-surrender is the highest and easiest method for enlightenment.
One who has surrendered himself is always protected by the divine
power. One who possesses nothing and has no one to protect him,
belongs to God and is constantly under the protection of the Divine...

It is not difficult to understand the relationship between two forms
of matter because the source is one and the same...

Life is nothing more than the Soul meeting itself in the reflection of
the outer world. A dream is a succession of images passing through
the mind; "reality" is the effect of these images...

Most people get so wrapped up in the dream of living that they don't
realize that they are merely acting out a wishful experience...

FORGOT indicates a cluttered mind. Memory is nothing more than
awareness of awareness... trust and discipline the attention...

A man's idea of God is that image of blinding light that he sees
reflected in the concave mirror of his own soul, and yet, in very
truth, this is not GOD but his own reflection. His glory is there but
it is the light of his own spirit that man sees, and it is all that he
can bear to look upon. The clearer the mirror, the brighter will be
the divine image. But the external world cannot be witnessed in it at
the same moment. In the ecstatic yogi, in the illuminated seer, the
spirit will shine like the noonday Sun; in the debased "victim"
(person) of earthly attraction, the radiance has disappeared, for the
mirror is obscured with the stains of matter... HPB Isis Unveiled Vol I

The apparent purpose for which the universe comes into existence is to
change potentialities into actively manifested powers...

The emergence and subsequent development of a universe and its
contents is regarded in occult science as being less the result of an
act of creation followed by natural evolution, but a process of
emanation guided by intelligent forces under immutable law...

Baba:
When the mind is idle, put it to work repeating the sacred name(s) of
God, for if left idle, the mind will surely destroy us. When we must
do work say, "Lord' I dedicate this work to you". Then we go ahead and
give full attention to that work. When the work is done, then return
the mind immediately to repeating the sacred name of God. Use the name
and form of God which is dear to you, such as OM SAI RAM or OM Shanti
Om. Whatever the name that is chosen, Baba suggests that the form to
accompany that name be deliberately created. We have Baba's assurance
that in this Kali Yuga, any person who gathers his/her will and energy
into a one-pointed attention to the divine name and form can thereby
penetrate the veiling of the Divine and gain Release, Liberation, and
the Realization of his/her ultimate truth.

Jyoti Meditation:
Ask for guidance and acceptance of the meditation. Gaze through
partially closed eyes at a candle flame. Continue until the breath is
calm and slow. Continue until the flame of the candle (the Jyoti) is
firmly visualized in the mind when the eyes are closed. Move this pure
flame, which is now firmly visualized, to all parts of the body.
Whenever impurity is touched by the Jyoti, the impurity vanishes, for
it cannot survive in pure light. Now move the light away from the
body, first to family members, then to friends, then to acquaintances,
enemies, and finally let its benignant quality bless the entire
universe. Bring the Jyoti back to the body and place it in the heart.
Sit quietly for a few moments, offer a prayer of gratitude to the
Lord, and then carry on with daily affairs...

The spiritual practice of sitting quietly and allowing one's breathing
to become slow and even is named Ekaantha Bhakthi. Best time is 3-5
am. Sit quietly and adjust the breath so that the rate of inhaling and
exhaling is the same. Further, by practice, reduce breaths from eight
or ten per minute to two or one per minute. The tip of the tongue
should be touching the rear of the teeth. Ekaantha Bhakti is that
state of mind without thoughts and desires when it is concentrated on
God...

Who are you? I am God playing the part of (Tom)...

If you really want self-realization, liberation, you can have it right
now.  If you knew that you could have a million dollars by putting
your full attention on it for a week, there would not be a moment in
the day or night that you would not be thinking of it. Why then don't
we do the same for self-realization?  Do we not value it as much as the
money? If every moment our attention were fixed on liberation, then we
would achieve it!!!

If you do not feel the call at the sight of human distress, disease,
or deviation from right, how can you muster the determination and
dedication necessary to serve the unseen, inscrutable, mysterious God?
When you do not love man, your heart will not love God. Dispising
brother-man, you cannot at the same time worship God. If you do, God
will not accept that hypocrisy. Go is resident in every heart so, if
you serve anyone, that service reaches the God within him. It brings
you the Grace of God...

Judgment is limited in its perception, seeing localized effects and
not understanding the wider significance of the experience...
Discernment is holistic perception and understanding with an open
inquiring mind/heart into the layers of truth each experience holds
within itself. Frees the spirit and matures into deep understanding of
true wisdom...

Contributed by: Tom Whittier