Fw: [NDhighlights] #1503 - Friday, July 25, 2003

[Guest guest]

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The world does not yield to changing. By its very nature it is painful

and transient. See it as it is and divest yourself of all desire and

fear. When the world does not hold and bind you, it becomes an abode

of joy and beauty. You can be happy in the world only when you are

free of it.

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

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"Dragonfly" photo by Al Larus

#1503 - Friday, July 25, 2003 - Editor: Gloria

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"Your own self is your ultimate teacher. The outer teacher is merely

amilestone. It is only your inner teacher that will walk with you to

thegoal, for he is the goal.""Truth is simple and open to all. Why do

you complicate? Truth is loving and lovable. It includes all, accepts

all, purifies all. It is untruth that is difficult and a source of

trouble. It always wants, expects, demands. Being false, it is empty,

always in search of confirmation and reassurance. It is afraid of and

avoids enquiry. It identifies itself with any support, however weak

and momentary. Whatever it gets, it loses and asks for more.

Therefore put no faith in the conscious. Nothing you can see, feel,

or think is so. Even sin and virtue, merit and demerit are not what

they appear. Usually the bad and the good are matter of convention

and custom and are shunned or welcomed, according to how the words

are used."

~Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

ANetofJewels

________________Viorica

Weissman ~ MillionPaths

Remembering Nisargadatta Maharaj

David Godman :

There were two periods when it was possible to question him

[Nisargadatta Maharaj ] :one in the late morning and one in the

evening. Translators would be available at both sessions. He

encouraged people to talk during these sessions, or at least he did

when I first started going to see him. Later on, he would use these

sessions to give long talks on the nature of consciousness. He never

sat quietly if no one had anything to say. He would actively solicit

questions, but if no one wanted to talk to him, he would start

talking himself.

I only ever had one opportunity to sit with him in complete

silence and that was at the beginning of the summer monsoon. When the

monsoon breaks in Bombay, usually around the end of the first week of

June, there are very heavy rains that bring the city to a standstill.

The storm drains are generally clogged, and for a day or so people are

walking round in knee-deep water. And not just water. The sewers

overflow and the animals that live in them drown. Anyone brave enough

to go for a paddle would be wading through sewage, waterlogged garbage

and the corpses of whatever animals had recently drowned. Public

transport comes to a halt since in many places the water level is too

high to drive through.

One afternoon two of us waded through the floodwaters to

Maharaj's door. We were both staying in a cheap lodge about 200 yards

away, so it wasn't that much of a trek. We scrubbed off the filth with

water from a tap on the ground floor and made our way up to Maharaj's

room. He seemed very surprised to see us. I think he thought that the

floods would keep everyone away. He said in Marathi that there would

be no session that afternoon because none of the translators would be

able to make it. I assume he wanted us to leave and go home, but we

both pretended that we didn't understand what he was trying to tell

us. After one or two more unsuccessful attempts to persuade us to go,

he gave up and sat in a corner of the room with a newspaper in front

of his face so that we couldn't even look at him. I didn't care. I

was just happy to be sitting in the same room as him. I sat there in

absolute silence with him for over an hour and it was one of the most

wonderful experiences I ever had with him. I felt an intense

rock-solid silence descend on me that became deeper and deeper as the

minutes passed. There was just a glow of awareness that filled me so

completely, thoughts were utterly impossible. You don't realise what

a monstrous imposition the mind is until you have lived without it,

completely happily, completely silently, and completely effortlessly

for a short period of time. For most of this time I was looking in

the direction of Maharaj. Sometimes he would turn a page and glance

in our direction, and when he did he still seemed to be irritated

that we hadn't left. I was smiling inwardly at his annoyance because

it wasn't touching me in any way. I had no self-consciousness, no

embarrassment, no feeling of being an imposition. I was just resting

contentedly in my own being.

After just over an hour of this he got up and shooed us both out.

I prostrated and left. Later on, I wondered why he didn't sit in

silence more often since there was clearly a very powerful quietening

energy coming off him when he was silent. Ramana Maharshi said that

speaking actually interrupted the flow of the silent energy he was

giving out. I have often wondered if the same thing happened with

Maharaj.

Harriet: And what was your conclusion?

David: I realised that it was not his nature to keep quiet. His

teaching method was geared to arguing and talking. That's what he

felt most comfortable doing.

http://www.davidgodman.org/interviews/nis2.shtml

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