The opening lines of H.P. Blavatsky’s Voice of The Silence:

“He who would hear the voice of Nada, ‘the Soundless Sound,’ and comprehend it, he has to learn the nature of Dharana.

Having become indifferent to objects
of perception, the pupil must seek out the rajah of the senses, the Thought-Producer, he who awakes illusion.

The Mind is the great Slayer of the Real.

Let the Disciple slay the Slayer.

For –

When to himself his form appears unreal, as do on waking all the forms he sees in dreams;

When he has ceased to hear the many, he may discern the ONE — the inner sound which kills the outer.

Then only, not till then, shall he forsake the region of Asat, the false, to come unto the realm of Sat, the true.

Before the soul can see, the Harmony within must be attained, and fleshly eyes be rendered blind to all illusion.

Before the Soul can hear, the image (man) has to become as deaf to roarings as to whispers, to cries of bellowing elephants as to the silvery buzzing of the golden fire-fly.

Before the soul can comprehend and may remember, she must unto the Silent Speaker be united just as the form to which the clay is modelled, is first united with the potter’s mind.

For then the soul will hear, and will remember.

And then to the inner ear will speak –

THE VOICE OF THE SILENCE …”

Voice of Silence by H.P. Blavatsky, available from Quest Books

Taungpulu Sayadaw

Taungpulu Sayadaw on “What Makes Meditation?” (Translated by Rina Sircar

(Excerpted from Blooming in the Desert, Favorite Teachings of the Wildflower Monk Taungpulu Sayadaw, Edited by Anne Teich, North Atlantic Books, 1996)

“When you know that you are having greed, you are no longer in ignorance, but possess knowledge.
If you know that you are angry, and have hatred, you are no longer in ignorance but possess knowledge.
When you know that you are having ignorance, that knowing becomes knowledge and it is meditation.
Even if you become aware of the feeling, ‘I don’t want to meditate,’ that means that you have the insight that you don’t want to meditate. Since you know that you do not want to meditate, that knowing becomes the meditation — the mindfulness and awareness that you know what you don’t want to do.”

Nyogen Senzaki’s Prayer

(Excerpted from Like A Dream, Like A Fantasy, Japan Publication, Inc., 1978)

Dharmakaya is the Buddha’s holy body.  It is the everlasting sea of noumena. It is the eternal reality of the universe.  From this transcendent point of view,  there is no coming of the Buddha, and so there is no going of the Buddha. Yet in the endless sea of phenomena arise the waves of charity and loving-kindness, to enlighten the ignorance of all fellow beings.  The eternal reality reveals its loving-kindness in the manifestation of the waves of phenomena. Thus, there is coming of Buddha, and so there is going of Buddha, from the phenomenal viewpoint of life.

My first prayer is to make myself a mirror of Dharmakaya, and reflect the whole world and the beings therein …

My last prayer is that the everlasting waves will carry us all to emancipation, so that we may enter the flowery door of Buddhahood. My adoration is for the knowledge of all Buddhas, and I will devote my life to enlighten myself and have others enlightened.

NOTE: Sensaki was a dear friend and mentor to two members of the SFTS Lodge, Samuel Lewis and Agnes Kast. His teacher Soyen Shaku was one of the first Zen teachers to come to the United States. Senzsaki’s dharma brother was the renown D.T. Suzuki. Soyen Shaku said that Suzuki’s mission was to become famous and influence the course of Western culture, and that Senzaki’s mission was to live the simple life of a monk, and be like a seed planted in the earth.

Meister Eckhart via Matthew Fox

Meister Eckhart

“God is creating the entire universe, fully and totally, in the present now.”
(Wrestling with the Prophets )

“God is a great underground river that no one can dam up and no one can stop.”
(Wrestling with the Prophets )

“The outward work can never be small if the inward one is great, and the outward work can never be great or good if the inward is small or of little worth.”
(The Reinvention of Work )

“Every creature is full of God and a book about God.”
(The Reinvention of Work )

“A person works in a stable.
That person has a breakthrough.
What does he do?
He returns to work in the stable.”
(Meditations with Meister Eckhart)

Q. Having told me what God, the Soul and Man are not, in your views, can you inform me what they are, according to your teachings?

A. In their origin and in eternity the three, like the universe and all therein, are one with the absolute Unity, the unknowable deific essence I spoke about some time back. We believe in no creation, but in the periodical and consecutive appearances of the universe from the subjective onto the objective plane of being, at regular intervals of time, covering periods of immense duration.

Q. Can you elaborate the subject?

A. Take as a first comparison and a help towards a more correct conception, the solar year, and as a second, the two halves of that year, producing each a day and a night of six months’ duration at the North Pole. Now imagine, if you can, instead of a Solar year of 365 days, eternity. Let the sun represent the universe, and the polar days and nights of six months each — days and nights lasting each 182 trillions and quadrillions of years, instead of 182 days each. As the sun arises every morning on our objective horizon out of its (to us) subjective and antipodal space, so does the Universe emerge periodically on the plane of objectivity, issuing from that of subjectivity — the antipodes of the former. This is the “Cycle of Life”. And as the sun disappears from our horizon, so does the Universe disappear at regular periods, when the “Universal night” sets in. The Hindus call such alternations the “Days and Nights of Brahm” , or the time of Manvantara and that of Pralaya (dissolution). The Westerns may call them Universal Days and Nights if they prefer. During the latter (the nights) All is in All; every atom is resolved into one Homogeneity.

“Awareness expresses itself through its dynamic energy as consciousness that involves conceptual elaboration, marked by myriad dualistic habitual patterns that such consciousness generates. Since what are not objects are misconstrued as objects, there are five kinds of sense objects, and since what has no identity is invested with identity, there are the five afflictive emotions. These constitute all possible confused perception — of the universe and the beings within it. Even what manifests as samsara arises due to that dynamic energy, but when this is not realize, the manifestation itself is one of erroneous perception.
Through realization, within the vast expanse of being, of the true nature of phenomena — coming from nowhere, going nowhere, and abiding nowhere at all — there is “the enlightened intent of the total freedom of the three realms.” This is the transmission of ati — spontaneous presence, the vajra heart essence, arising from the wholly positive expanse of supreme spaciousness.”

Most High, all-powerful, all-good Lord,
All praise is Yours, all glory, honor and blessings.
To you alone, Most High, do they belong;
no mortal lips are worthy to pronounce Your Name.

We praise You, Lord, for all Your creatures,
especially for Brother Sun,
who is the day through whom You give us light.
And he is beautiful and radiant with great splendor,
of You Most High, he bears your likeness.

We praise You, Lord, for Sister Moon and the stars,
in the heavens you have made them bright, precious and fair.

We praise You, Lord, for Brothers Wind and Air,
fair and stormy, all weather’s moods,
by which You cherish all that You have made.

We praise You, Lord, for Sister Water,
so useful, humble, precious and pure.

We praise You, Lord, for Brother Fire,
through whom You light the night.
He is beautiful, playful, robust, and strong.

We praise You, Lord, for Sister Earth,
who sustains us
with her fruits, colored flowers, and herbs.

We praise You, Lord, for those who pardon,
for love of You bear sickness and trial.
Blessed are those who endure in peace,
by You Most High, they will be crowned.

We praise You, Lord, for Sister Death,
from whom no-one living can escape.
Woe to those who die in their sins!
Blessed are those that She finds doing Your Will.
No second death can do them harm.

We praise and bless You, Lord, and give You thanks,
and serve You in all humility.

St. Francis of Assisi, Canticle of the Creatures

Maharaj: All knowledge is like the son of a barren woman.
Presently there are only beingness and functioning.
The individuality and personality are thrown overboard.
There is no personality, so there is no question of birth, life, or death.
What remains is only the consciousness without name or form.
The form needs a name, but when both are not there,
then the consciousness remains only for so long as the body is there,
but without any individuality.
The body is of as much use now as it was prior to birth and after death.
How do you know me?
You know me only the acquisition of body form, name and form.
Do you really see me as I am? I doubt it.
Now the conclusion is that the unborn is enjoying the birth-principle.
That principle that is born took so much time to understand this,
and is it is the unborn only which prevails.
It took so much time for the Self to understand the Self.
We have tied around our necks so many concepts; death, this “I AM”,etc.
Similarly, Concepts, of good and evil are unnecessary.
We have developed these concepts and are caught in them.
How does one think about Self-knowledge?
Do you abide in the Self or in the process do you think of something else as the Self?
You are wrapped up and lost in your concepts.
For instance, you have a concept about friendship.
How long do you keep your friends? You keep them so long as they are useful to you.
So long as a friend is of some benefit to you,
that’s how long you would like to keep that friendship.
Now, how can I actually derive benefit out of a friend?
I, as an individual, am not there, so how can there be a question of benefit?
Benefit to whom? How can there be a question of friendship at all.
Anybody, who comes here can sit. I will allow him to sit for some time,
but later on I will say, “You may leave,” Why?
Because I have no intention or purpose of having any friendship with that person.
Ordinarily, there is some purpose for deriving certain benefits out of an association with another.
When you meet someone in friendship, there may be some intention to serve one another.
But I have no friends. Even this “I Amness” will not remain as my friend.
I am not able to talk any longer—the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.
Previously I used to welcome people but now I am not in a position to welcome them.
They come, they sit and they go by themselves. I cannot even extend my hospitality.
All my knowledge has gone into liquidation. I am unconcerned.

Nisargadatta Maharaj, Consciousness and the Absolute 112-114

Vimalakirti replied, “Manjusri, a bodhisattva should regard all livings beings as a wise man regards the reflection of the moon in water or as magicians regard men created by magic. He should regard them as being like a face in a mirror; like the water of a mirage; like the sound of an echo; like a mass of clouds in the sky; like the previous moment of a ball of foam; like the appearance and disappearance of a bubble of water; like the core of a plantain tree; like a flash of lightning; like the fifth great element; like the seventh sense-medium; like the appearance of matter in an immaterial realm; like a sprout from a rotten seed; like a tortoise-hair coat; like the fun of games for one who wishes to die; like the egoistic views of a stream-winner; like a third rebirth of a once-returner; like the descent of a nonreturner into a womb; like the existence of desire, hatred, and folly in a saint; like thoughts of avarice, immorality, wickedness, and hostility in a bodhisattva who has attained tolerance; like the instincts of passions in a Tathagata; like the perception of color in one blind from birth; like the inhalation and exhalation of an ascetic absorbed in the meditation of cessation; like the track of a bird in the sky; like the erection of a eunuch; like the pregnancy of a barren woman; like the unproduced passions of an emanated incarnation of the Tathagata; like dream-visions seen after waking; like the passions of one who is free of conceptualizations; like fire burning without fuel; like the reincarnation of one who has attained ultimate liberation. “Precisely thus, Manjusri, does a bodhisattva who realizes the ultimate selflessness consider all beings.”

Manjusri then asked further, “Noble sir, if a bodhisattva considers all living beings in such a way, how does he generate the great love toward them?”

Vimalakirti replied, “Manjusri, when a bodhisattva considers all living beings in this way, he thinks: ‘Just as I have realized the Dharma, so should I teach it to living beings.’ Thereby, he generates the love that is truly a refuge for all living beings; the love that is peaceful because free of grasping; the love that is not feverish, because free of passions; the love that accords with reality because it is equanimous in all three times; the love that is without conflict because free of the violence of the passions; the love that is nondual because it is involved neither with the external nor with the internal; the love that is imperturbable because totally ultimate.

“Thereby he generates the love that is firm, its high resolve unbreakable, like a diamond; the love that is pure, purified in its intrinsic nature; the love that is even, its aspirations being equal; the saint’s love that has eliminated its enemy; the bodhisattva’s love that continuously develops living beings; The Tathagata’s love that understands reality; the Buddha’s love that causes living beings to awaken from their sleep; the love that is spontaneous because it is fully enlightened spontaneously; the love that is enlightenment because it is unity of experience; the love that has no presumption because it has eliminated attachment and aversion; the love that is great compassion because it infuses the Mahayana with radiance; the love that is never exhausted because it acknowledges voidness and selflessness; the love that is giving because it bestows the gift of Dharma free of the tight fist of a bad teacher; the love that is morality because it improves immoral living beings; the love that is tolerance because it protects both self and others; the love that is effort because it takes responsibility for all living beings; the love that is contemplation because it refrains from indulgence in tastes; the love that is wisdom because it causes attainment at the proper time; the love that is liberative technique because it shows the way everywhere; the love that is without formality because it is pure in motivation; the love that is without deviation because it acts from decisive motivation; the love that is high resolve because it is without passions; the love that is without deceit because it is not artificial; the love that is happiness because it introduces living beings to the happiness of the Buddha. Such, Manjusri, is the great love of a bodhisattva.”

Excerpted from the Vimalakirti Nirdesa Sutra, Translated by Robert Thurman

My blissful Mother exists fully through every creature!

Meditate, O mind, on the mystery of Kali.

Use any method of worship you please,

or be free from methods,

breathing day and night her living name

as the seed of power

planted by the teacher in your heart

Consider the simple act of lying down to sleep

as devoted offering of body and mind to her.

Allow your dreams to become

radiant meditations on the Cosmic Mother.

As you wander through countryside or city,

feel that you are moving through Kali, Kali, Kali.

All sounds you hear are her natural mantras

arising spontaneously

as the whole universe worships her,

prostrates to her, awakens to her.

The Goddess, who is unitive wisdom,

constitutes the letters of every alphabet.

Every word secretly bears the power of her name.

The singer of this mystic hymn is overwhelmed:

“Wonderful! Wonderful! My blissful Mother

exists fully through every creature!

O wandering poet,

whatever food or drink you receive,

offer as oblation in the sacrificial fire of your body

and dissolve your mind

into her all-encompassing reality.

Source: Ramprasad Sen, Rendered by Lex Hixon, Mother of the Universe, 1994, Wheaton, Ill. Theosophical Publishing House., p. 40.