The observer is the observed!

 “You are the one who watches your conditioning!” Ah, how can it be that we listen to the masters—Mooji, Eckhart Tolle, Rupert Spira, etc.—and nod enthusiastically because their message sounds so simple and straightforward, but a year later we are back to their seminars to get a refresher course. Why?

“The observer is the observed,” is the powerful teaching J. Krishnamurti left us, which is corroborated by quantum mechanics as well. If you hear, “that’s not a loving thought” in your head, the listener—and judge—is part of the same conditioning that caused the thinking process in the first place. What to do?

Who am I? I am the one who sees the impossibility of getting our arms around conditioning. That’s when the Light comes in. Be still for a moment and feel the energy powering through your heart. Sense the inner and outer energies and stay with them until they start aligning. Outer and inner are One.

#jkrishnamurti #spirituality #awakening 

Clean up, everybody everywhere!

 Clean up, clean up,

everybody, everywhere,

Clean up, clean up,

everybody, do your share!

This was a nursery rhyme the boys learnt at pre-school. I was reminded of it when I came across Rachna Thakur’s:

“One should be conscious of external and internal dirt. As one keeps the body clean, so should be the mind. Free from selfish desires and clinging attachments. Pure and sublime thought entering the intellect; a personality spotless from the stain of vasanas (impressions of the mind/conditioning).”

Only one piece of advice here given that humanity has aimed for ethics and spiritual purity for ages without getting very far—the “should” and “could” originating from the mind need to be inquired into. Let the heart-center call the shots. The messiness of the environment we are in, as well as our inner conflicted attitude, have been given to us to discover the Truth of the moment. The cleaning process not only makes the world a little better; the cleaning erases the thinker and doer.

Warm around the heart

 “Thoughts come and go.

The ‘I’ that claims them is the problem.”

Ramana Maharshi

There is a heart-centered energy flow at work. Activating it while looking through the  mind-centered energy flow is what spiritual living is all about. When we are fully present the mind becomes still while the heart-centered energy flow is fully operational and the outer vibrations align with the inner.. The Germans describe the heart-centered energy as “warm uns Herz”—warm around the heart. We are present when  jnana (wisdom) and bhakti (love) yoga meet. S-E-L-F, that is,

S (tillness) of our mind;

E (nergy) reaches crown;

L (ove) prevails, and the

F (low) of life is uninterrupted.

reigns.

It’s allright to be in-between occasionally, but we can seek the people, environments and activities that warm our heart just as we can turn away from those that are mind-centered and not heart-centered. We are humanity so the lower vibration energies will continue to be present to help us learn transcending them. Meanwhile, we can always remind ourselves that the thought-feeling energies, while present, do not own nor define us. 

In Awareness every moment is fresh

 Questioner: When a spectator who is watching a play is completely absorbed in the play, is that the state of total attention?

J. Krishnamurti: You are watching a play, and the play is so interesting that you are completely absorbed.  There is no `you' for the moment, because the play has absorbed you, with all your worries, anxieties, fears.  Now, what is the difference between your absorption, and that of a child who is absorbed by an amusing toy? The child may have been naughty, mischievous, doing all kinds of restless things, but give that child a toy which is very interesting, and he is completely absorbed in it.  The toy is so interesting that he forgets all about his restlessness.  What is the difference between the two?  A play, a book, a church service, an idea, a belief, a piece of music, a picture, or what you will, absorbs you, and you forget yourself.  So what has become important is the picture, the toy, and not the understanding of yourself.  You may be absorbed for an hour by the play, but when you go back to your home you have your old self again.  So if one is absorbed by anything, by propaganda, by nationalistic demands, or if one identifies oneself with something, which is another form of absorption, in that state there is no learning; therefore there is no freedom, and hence no virtue.  A mind that is absorbed by a toy, however gracious, however beautiful, however supposedly important, is obviously escaping from itself.  Such a mind is always in disorder, and its actions produce further disorder, further confusion in the world.

Question and Answers with J. Krishnamurti 

In Awareness every moment is new and fresh. Be self-aware if there is any attachment to the moment at hand or if there is escape. Inquire into who is attached and who is escaping. That’s meditation, or mindfulness, in a nutshell. 

Be one with the obstacle and Awareness shines through

 You hear that often from the masters, turn your mind inwards and let your heart shine instead. Easier said than done!

I have been a spiritual seeker—on and off—for most of my life. The most intense period was in graduate school, following an amazing church experience just after I graduated in economics in Germany and was headed for a PhD in the US. While advancing my studies in economics in Providence, RI, I stumbled on the Bhagavad Gita, Vivekananda, Ramakrishna and J. Krishnamurti in the library, and did not rest until I had convinced myself that the power of Christ was real and has manifested again and again. Then came work, my family and I lost touch with spirituality until I reached my early 40s when a spontaneous kundalini Awakening experience found me. It was a magical time and I wrote a couple of books in my free time as I wanted to share the magic of the Way. 

The stagnation really happened when I tried practicing spirituality full time. Getting my arms around non-duality, Ramana Maharshi’s self inquiry and Nisargadatta Maharaj’s “I Am” way of living was harder than expected. Even though this had been a fact of life since Awakening started, I suddenly realized that I had one foot in the real world and the other in the magical world of Oneness. I was halfway there so to speak. What to do? I experienced stuck energy until I realized that spiritual searching and the desire to teach was the obstacle. It was the mind trying to keep itself in business wrapped up in spiritual clothes. So what do you do when you find that the quest and the teaching is the obstacle? Do you stop and throw in the towel? It’s actually quite simple. Awareness is, moment by moment—a restless mind, stuck energy, a frozen heart or a perceived obstacle imply that we have gone for a walk while God is at Home. Be one with the obstacle and Awareness shines through. 

#awakening #spirituality #mind #quest

Inquire into the good, the bad and the ugly

 Someone in the Buddhist community shared a story of Ajan Chah where a monk had a run-in with another monk and felt agitated, but his day turned around when Ajan Chah greeted him with a big smile. Later that evening monks meditated together and he was singled out to meditate with the master exclusively and he reached the deepest depth being next to the master. Suddenly Ajan Chah kicked him in the chest and he fell to the ground confused.

A total embrace of the moment at hand is all that we can do consciously along a spiritual quest. Aware of being angry at the colleague monk, aware of being happy when the master smiles at us, etc. The opportunity is always to bring it back to ourselves:

We fight with the colleague—what inner pain body is triggered here? 

The master smiles at us—Awareness is within, not with the master.

Happiness with the deep meditation result—perhaps I enjoy exclusivity.

Kick in the chest—thank you for making me aware that I am unaware!

The power of now is always here and now, in the holy, the good, the bad and the ugly. “I Am” remains a concept when we are owned by our mind, but the moment is always happy to demonstrate our mind interference because it is the mind that generates the perceived moment. The mind would title this post “go to by going through,” but that’s the interference, you see? We focus on the here and now with the intent to reach the “I Am” state. Inquire without having any expectations and Awareness shines through.

Be one with the holy, the good and the ugly!

 During the European crisis an Italian banker remarked, “Everyone told me, ‘don’t panic, don’t panic!’ Well, I should have panicked!”

We all have experienced the magic when life confronts us with obstacles and we go within and connect with that magnificent Presence that restores pure being instantaneously. Keeping the lesson of the Italian banker in mind though, when we face life and the discontentment and restlessness linger or even intensify, be one with it and see what happens. Be One in the holy, the good, the bad and the ugly. That’s what Oneness is all about.