“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.

Dharma Message for August 2007

Excerpt from the Astavakra Gita (Chapter VII):

1. In me, the boundless ocean, the ark of the universe, moves hither and thither impelled by the wind of its own inherent nature. I am not impatient.
2. In me, the limitless ocean, let the wave of the world rise and vanish of itself. I neither increase nor decrease thereby.
3. In me, the boundless ocean, is the imagination of the universe. I am quite tranquil and formless. In this alone do I abide.
4. The Self is not in the object, nor is the object in the Self which is infinite and stainless. Thus It is free from attachment and desire, and tranquil. In this alone do I abide.
5. Oh, I am really Consciousness itself. The world is like a juggler’s show. So how and where can there be any thought of rejection or acceptance in me?

Dharma Message for August 2007

Excerpt from the Ribhu Gita (Verse 3 thru Verse 6):

“3. When one scrutinizes this variety of manifestation one realizes that it does not really exist and that everything is the undifferentiated Absolute Supreme Being which is not different from the Self and oneself. Let this knowledge become firm with you by constant practice. Then, discarding everything, become one wih the Supreme Absolute Reality and, remaining as that be happy.

6. Abide as That in which there is neither any defect nor good quality, neither pleasure nor pain, neither thought nor silence, neither misery nor austerities practiced for getting rid of misery, no “I-am-the-body” idea, no objects of perception whatsoever — and be always happy, free from all traces of thoughts.”

Dharma Message for June, July and August 2007

“Look for the flower to bloom in the silence that follows the storm; not till then. It shall grow, it will shoot up, it will make branches and leaves and form buds, while the storm continues, while the battle lasts. But not till the whole personality of the man is dissolved and melted — not until it is held by the divine fragment which has created it, as a mere subject for grave experiment and experience — not until the whole nature has yielded, and become subject unto its higher self, can the bloom open. Then will come a calm such as comes in a tropical country after a heavy rain, when Nature works so swiftly that one may see her action. Such a calm will come to the harassed spirit. And, in the deep silence, the mysterious event will occur which will prove that the way has been found. Call it by what name you will, it is a voice that speaks where there is none to speak, it is a messenger that comes — a messenger without form or substance — or it is the flower of the soul that has opened. It cannot be described by any metaphor. But it can be felt after, looked for, and desired, even amid the raging storm. The silence may last a moment of time, or it may last a thousand years. But it will end. Yet you will carry its strength with you. Again and again the battle must be fought and won. It is only for an interval that Nature can be still.”

Mabel Collins, Light on The Path

March, April and May 2007

“In the present circumstances, no one can afford to assume that someone else will solve their problems. Every individual has a responsibility to help guide our global family in the right direction. Good wishes are not sufficient; we must become actively engaged.”

The Path to Tranquility: Daily Wisdom, Snow Lion Publications
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January – February 2007

The everyday practice of dzogchen is simply to develop a complete carefree acceptance, an openness to all situations without limit. We should realize openness as the playground of our emotions and relate to people without artificiality, manipulation or strategy. We should experience everything totally, never withdrawing into ourselves as a marmot hides in its hole. This practice releases tremendous energy which is usually constricted by the process of maintaining fixed reference points. Referentiality is the process by which we retreat from the direct experience of everyday life.

Being present in the moment may initially trigger fear. But by welcoming the sensation of fear with complete openness, we cut through the barriers created by habitual emotional patterns.
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