John of the Cross - Dark Night

[Guest guest]

a PS for those who may be interested in an interpretation of this

poem of John of the Cross. On is found at

www.karmel.at/ics/john/dn.html

The mystic poem speaks about Union with God through love - the bhakti

path in a Christian view.

 

Yours in Sri Bhagavan

Gabriele

 

RamanaMaharshi, "Gabriele Ebert"

<g.ebert@g...> wrote:

> STANZAS OF THE SOUL

[Guest guest]

dear ebert

i was surprised and happy to see john de cross quoted

in ramanamaharshis column. IN point of fact i have

always thought that there are a lot of things common

in the life and teachings of both these mystics

despite their faith in differing religions.Both lived

ascetic lives with absolutely no worldiness.john de

cross even underwent imprisonment. i hope you will

continue ddto enlighten others on the life and

techings of john de cross in the context of ramana

maharshi

joseph oommen

--- Gabriele Ebert <g.ebert wrote:

> STANZAS OF THE SOUL

> 1. On a dark night, Kindled in love with

> yearnings--oh, happy chance!--

> I went forth without being observed, My house

> being now at rest.

> 2. In darkness and secure, By the secret ladder,

> disguised--oh, happy chance!--

> In darkness and in concealment, My house being now

> at rest.

> 3. In the happy night, In secret, when none saw

> me,

> Nor I beheld aught, Without light or guide, save

> that which burned in my heart.

> 4. This light guided me More surely than the light

> of noonday

> To the place where he (well I knew who!) was

> awaiting me-- A place where none appeared.

> 5. Oh, night that guided me, Oh, night more lovely

> than the dawn,

> Oh, night that joined Beloved with lover, Lover

> transformed in the Beloved!

> 6. Upon my flowery breast, Kept wholly for himself

> alone,

> There he stayed sleeping, and I caressed him, And

> the fanning of the cedars made a breeze.

> 7. The breeze blew from the turret As I parted his

> locks;

> With his gentle hand he wounded my neck And caused

> all my senses to be suspended.

> 8. I remained, lost in oblivion; My face I

> reclined on the Beloved.

> All ceased and I abandoned myself, Leaving my

> cares forgotten among the lilies.

>

> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

> John of the Cross: Dark Night of the Soul

> from the Internet

> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

 

 

 

Send Flowers for Valentine's Day

 

[Guest guest]

Dear Joseph,

 

 

 

<IN point of fact i have

> always thought that there are a lot of things common

> in the life and teachings of both these mystics

> despite their faith in differing religions.Both lived

> ascetic lives with absolutely no worldiness.john de

> cross even underwent imprisonment. i hope you will

> continue ddto enlighten others on the life and

> techings of john de cross in the context of ramana

> maharshi

 

Thank you for the encouragement. Indeed, to read John of the Cross in

the light of Bhagavan - but also to read Bhagavan in the light of

John of the Cross is a great discovery.

 

Members from this group come from different religious and spiritual

traditions and are invited to share more of it, what they find of

value and importance. It has always been a topic in Sri Ramana's hall

and it is beautiful to listen. The group is surely open to that all.

We meet in Bhagavan as the centre and vivid manifestation of the Self

which contains it all.

 

In Sri Ramana

Gabriele

[Guest guest]

OM Ramanaya Namah

 

Mind

 

Desire is the root cause of all diseaes and this take place in mind.All of us

try controlling our minds. Controlling the mind is difficult, but possible1. We

should not feel bad when we fail several times in our attempt to control our

minds. The mind is restless, turbulent, powerful and stubborn. But the mind can

be controlled with practice and dispassion2. Through the control of mind, one

can attain illumination. Such a person succeeds, even in adverse circumstances.

The person may still face the trials and tribulations of life. But he never

lacks the courage and strength to face them. When a person controls his mind,

his higher nature asserts itself and his hidden powers are released. Friends

wonder how this person could become, before their eyes, so great1. Persons

without self-control will not even retain the prosperity that they have.

Collectively, non-control of mind may lead to the downfall of an entire

civilization, however prosperous or stable it may appear to be. People with

passion, emotions and tensions may develop mental maladies or turn into

criminals. In some situations, we do things knowing fully well that it is the

right thing to do. And there are situations in which we act impulsively without

knowing what is right or wrong. Wrong action results in mental turmoil. Our

ignorance about right and wrong will not save us from trouble. The purer the

mind, the easier it is to control. One who is perfectly moral, has nothing more

to do. He is free. The undisturbed calmness of mind can be attained through

service to the needy people. The entire task of controlling the mind will have

to be done by each individual person. No one else can do it for another. What

are the difficulties faced while trying to control the mind? Strong likes or

dislikes, attachments or aversions, living an immoral life, harming others,

taking intoxicants, wasting time, inquisitiveness about others' affairs,

finding fault with others, being egocentric, jealous of others' prosperity, and

having feelings of guilt, are the things which make controlling the mind

difficult. The human mind is like a drunken monkey stung by a scorpion3. The

pleasure-urge, being the basic element in all beings, is so deeply ingrained.

Gautama Buddha taught that all things would change. Nothing lasts forever. One

may raise a question on the usage of words such as 'ever lasting' and

'constantly changing'. Buddha also said that desire is the reason for

unhappiness. So one should not have any attachment. While teaching Vipassana

meditation, Gautama Buddha described the four functions of the mind:

recognition by sense organs such as a word through an ear, evaluation, decide

pleasant or unpleasant, and reaction. Seeing with eyes, smelling with nose,

touching with skin, all initiate pleasant or unpleasant sensations in the body.

Gautama Buddha said that one should not react, since reaction is stored in the

subconscious mind as sankaras. The mind cannot be controlled, unless the

pleasure-motive is overcome. Indulgence in immoral pleasure creates greater

bondage and retards our higher self-development. Attachments to worldly things

are the most powerful impediments to task of controlling the mind. When

attachments are removed, aversions and delusions also leave us easily. Passion

is simply desire going in the wrong direction. In other words, desire can be

friend or a foe. When desire is directed towards reality, it becomes the

instrument of liberation and joy. When desire is directed towards the unreal,

it becomes the instrument of bondage and misery. The mind is restless due to

the impurities of the mind. Urges, impulses and emotions such as envy, hatred,

anger, fear, jealousy, lust, greed, conceit, temptation are the impurities of

the mind. When impurities are removed, the mind will be focussed and sharp to

observe even the faintest of the vibrations. The mind is a finer component of

the gross body and one affects the other. The same laws of time, space and

causation govern both mind and matter (body). It is for this reason that a

physical illness often affects the mind, and a mental illness or tension often

affects the body. The mind follows the wandering senses as the wind carries a

boat off its course on the waters. Senses are a part of the body. The mind has

to be controlled by the mind itself. Deliberate, patient, intelligent,

systematic hard work according to tested and suitable disciplines is needed.

Meditation helps to calm down the mind and to control the mind. The mind has to

be gradually and systematically brought under control. We always look at

external things and enjoy glamour. Instead, we should look inwardly within us

asking, “Who am I?” The mind has the power of looking into itself. For easy

understanding, one may imagine that the mind or brain is taken outside the

physical body and is able to look at the body. That is realizing your inner

most Self, the witness of intellect. Behind the mind is Self, the real self of

man. Body and mind are material. Self is pure sprit. Mind is not Self, but

distinct from the Self. Essentially, the person is not the mind. The person is

the Self. The Self is ever free, infinite and eternal. It is pure

consciousness. Mind is an instrument in the hands of the Self. Self apprehends

and responds to the external world through mind. Self comes in contact with the

external world through the mind. But the mind itself is changing and wavering.

If the wavering mind is made motionless, the mind can reflect the Self. We

should not identify ourselves with our mental states, good or bad. Our real

Self is not the mind. Passion ends after a person has experiences that he is

the Atman or Self, and not the body-mind complex. In one sense, to control the

mind is to train the mind to behave. Swami Vivekananda said before we control

the mind, we must study it. We have to seize this unstable mind and drag it

from its wanderings and fix it on one idea. Over and over again, this must be

done. “I am the witness watching my mind drifting. The mind is not I. Make any

effort to control the thoughts, but watch them and follow them in imagination

as they float away. I am not the mind. I see that I am thinking. I am watching

my mind act.” In the beginning, during the process of controlling the mind,

many revolting thoughts will come to our mind. As the practice continues, the

turbulence of the mind may increase for some time. Gradually the mind's

eccentricities will loose its strength. The link between the sense organs and

sense-objects is the mind. When the mind is withdrawn from sense-objects, the

sense organs also withdraw from their objects. A great deal of our mental

troubles and difficulties in controlling the mind arises from our habitual

wrong use of the faculty of imagination. Meditation helps to control the mind.

An enlightened person who has gained mastery over his own mind. At times, other

people mistake such as a person for being indifferent. The truth is that he

experiences emotions, but he does not let emotions overpower him4. Through the

body, we experience the world of objects, through the mind we experience the

world of emotions and through the intellect, we experience the world of

thoughts4. Controlling thoughts is one step towards controlling the mind.

Methodical control of thoughts is a great secret in controlling the mind. In

the initial stage, thought control means to think good thoughts. In its highest

stage, thought control means complete cessation of thought. To control thoughts,

keep the company of good people with noble thoughts and avoid evil company. The

scars of old wounds are in you. Evil company brings the dislikes out to the

surface. St. Francis de Sales says good thoughts drives away every temptation

and evil suggestion. He says tendencies are not sins. It is the inner consent

to wrong tendencies that constitute sin. Religions teach that refuge in God

helps to control the mind. Non-believers also can turn to nature, a flowing

river, the sky, and the wind, to the vast ocean or rising sun. Communicating

with trustworthy persons will help. He can think deeply about an inspiring line

of a poem or song or words of a noble mind. To control the mind, two sets of

inner disciplines are necessary. The first set is for permanent basic

operations and the second one is for providing high-power emergency brakes.

When one notices that a big wave of anger is just rising in the mind, one

should raise a contrary wave, a wave of love quickly. After the anger has set

in, this method will not work. But impress the fact on your mind that anger is

self-destructive. The mind will behave because the mind does not want

self-destruction. The mind learns from what you teach the mind. Patanjali

defines egoism as the identification of Self with senses, intellect and mind

(5). All our sins and troubles are rooted in this egoism. The mind operates are

at three states: conscious, subconscious and super-conscious. Subconscious mind

is wrongly called unconscious mind. Conscious mind makes resolutions.

Subconscious mind makes us frustrated to stay with our own resolutions. You may

imagine that in a storage box, the conscious mind operates at the surface level

and subconscious mind operates at the deeper level. The subconscious mind

stores past impressions or tendencies called sankaras in Pali language and

samskaras in Sanskrit. When we try to control our behavior using the conscious

mind, opposing forces arise from the subconscious mind causing strife. First,

we need to clean the subconscious mind by pouring good thoughts into our mind.

This is like cleaning ink from an old inkbottle with water. Attaining the

super-conscious state is the absence of all likes and dislikes. At the

super-conscious state, death becomes immortality, weakness becomes infinite

power and bondage becomes liberty. The source of all light is Brahman, the

supreme sprit, and pure consciousness. Bliss is beyond pleasure and pain, and

cannot be separated on the physical and mental plane. The very root of one's

existence is bliss. By his ignorance, he looks for bliss in body and mind

whereas bliss resides in the sprit, very Self.

[Guest guest]

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

 

Om Sri Ram Jai Ram Jai Jai Ram

 

As in one and the same house there are many people living, so on this earth,

which is God¹s house, we all live together. Countries are like different rooms

of the same house. Although you live in one of the rooms, you call the entire

house yours. Similarly you must be able to say that you belong to the whole

world, and

not to a particular country.

Swami Ramdas

Anandashram <cnn_ramnagar (AT) sancharnet (DOT) in>

Tue, 18 Feb 2003 05:54:08 +0530

Papasmission <papasmission>

[papasmission] THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

[Guest guest]

Dear Bhattathiry,Here is what H.H. Sri Swami Krishnanandaji Maharaj has said

about therelationship between mind and brain.THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN BRAIN AND

MIND (From "Your Questions Answered" bySwami Krishnananda)Spanish Visitor:

Swamiji, what is the mind, and how do thoughts originate?How do these thoughts

originate in our mind?SWAMIJI: When your personality starts, when you come into

being, the mindalso comes into being, because you are the mind itself. The one

who isspeaking to me just now is the mind speaking, and it originates the

momentthe Mr. so-and-so that you are originates. When did you originate? How

didyou come into being? Mind is the consciousness of individuality, and

the momentindividuality arises, the consciousness of individuality also

operates,simultaneously. In early babyhood, it is in a very minute incipient

form.When the individuality becomes more and more mature, the consciousness

ofindividuality, which is called the mind, also becomes more and more

clear.When you were a little baby, your consciousness of your individuality

wasvery vague. Now it is very clear, as in broad daylight. So, briefly,

the answer to your question is that the mind is theconsciousness of

individuality, and it is present in every created thing.Even an atom has a kind

of mind. It will not allow its individuality to bedisrupted by any kind of

external interference; it maintains aself-identity. The nucleus of the atom,

around which electrons revolve,constitutes the atom's individuality, and that

distinguishes one atom fromanother atom, as one person is different from

another person, as one thingis different from another thing. Everything

in the world, right from inanimate matter up to the humanlevel, maintains a

self-identity, and it will not become another thing. Youare what you are, and

you cannot be something else. That self-identityconsciousness, which maintains

itself and cannot become other than what itis, that is the mind, and it

operates universally everywhere in the cosmos.It is not only inside you. When

it operates as an individualised affirmationin one particular centre, it

becomes an "I" in the case of some person; andwhen it operates in another

person, it is the "I" in another. When it is inan insect, it is the "I" in the

insect. When it is in a tree, it maintainsan individuality of its own, also; it

has its own mind also, in a biologicalstate. It is not so very conscious, but it

is biologically alive, inprotoplasm and other things. Essentially, the

whole mind is cosmic. It is operating everywhere.There is only one mind,

finally. It is called the Cosmic Mind, like anocean, a sea. And it appears like

drops, or waves, or ripples operatingindividually in different persons, things,

individualities, etc. Whenever there is a consciousness of individuality,

of any person orany thing, the mind at once starts operating, because mind and

consciousnessof individuality mean one and the same thing. If anyone is

conscious thatone exists as an individual, that consciousness is called the

mind. So, theorigin of individuality is the same as the origin of the mind.

How the individuality arose is a cosmic question. It is a question ofcosmology

and creation, and there we go beyond psychology. Your question ispartly a

psychological question, but when you go deep, it becomes acosmological question

of creation itself; it is very deep, farther than howthe mind works. Then, you

have to know how the individuality has started atall. There, we go beyond

ordinary human concepts of experience. This is myanswer to your

question.Spanish Visitor: Thank you, Swamiji.SWAMIJI: They say the mind is

inside the brain. From where did the braincome? Their idea also is that the

mind is different from the brain.Spanish Visitor: Yes. They say so.SWAMIJI: Is

the mind touching the brain, or is it separate from the brain?What is the

relationship between the mind and the brain? What is the brainmade of? What is

the mind made of? You see, you have already accepted thatthey are two

things.Spanish Visitor: Yes.SWAMIJI: So, you may say that the brain is made of

material stuff. Is themind also made of material stuff? Or, is it made of

something else? Let thescientists answer this question. If it is made of a

different stuff, what isthat substance out of which it is made? If it is made

of the same stuff asthe brain, it becomes as material as the brain; then, it

cannot beconscious, because matter is not conscious of itself. So, how is it

that youare conscious, if the mind also is made up of matter only? Is matter

awareof itself? Matter requires another thing for it to be known. Matter

cannotknow matter; the non-matter only knows the existence of matter, so we

mustsay that the mind is made of non-matter. If it is non-matter, what is

thatnon-matter? What is it made of? They are making a muddle. Their idea

is not correct. They are not twodifferent things. If the mind and brain were

two different things, you wouldbe feeling that you are two persons, like a

split personality. But do youfeel that you are two persons? You are one whole,

integrated, solid being.How did this consciousness arise, if there are two

things operating in yourpersonality? Are you two fractions put together? Do you

feel that you are adual individual? Or, do you feel that you are a total whole?

What do yousay?Spanish Visitor: I feel like a total.SWAMIJI: Then, how did

these two things come there? You cannot be made oftwo things, and then feel

that you are one. It is impossible, so there is amistake in the concept of the

mind being inside the brain. It is not so. Itis a different thing altogether.

The mind is not inside the brain. Actually, the brain is a solidified

form of the mind itself; as waterlooks like ice, the mind looks like the brain,

and the body. That is why youare feeling that you are one integrated whole;

otherwise, you would havebeen feeling that you are a split personality,-some

matter, and somenon-matter. You would never be happy for one second, if you are

a splitpersonality. The identity consciousness, and the total consciousness

thatyou feel in you, is possible only if there is no distinction vitally

betweenmind and matter. It is one thing appearing as two things. You are

fromSpain. There was a great philosopher in your country called Spinoza.

Haveyou heard of Spinoza?Spanish Visitor: Yes.SWAMIJI: Do you know what he

writes? You have not read him. You are aphilosopher?Spanish Visitor: I am not a

philosopher, actually.SWAMIJI: You are teaching philosophy? Spinoza says that

mind and matter arelike two wings of a bird. The bird is the most important

thing; if the birdis not there, the wings will not be there. So, I told you

that the mind isvitally inseparable from the brain or matter; but actually, as

Spinoza,Plato or Aristotle, or Indian thinkers, mystics, etc., would say, it is

oneUniversal Substance that appears as thought and matter. This is what

Spinozawill tell you. And, you are actually Universal Substance, and not

eitherthis or that. Due to some peculiar phenomenon that has arisen in the act

ofcreation itself, you have separated yourself from the Cosmic Substance,

andare looking like an individual, isolated from the Cosmic Substance.

The Ultimate Reality is Substance, according to Spinoza. You may callIt God, if

you like. He calls It the Universal Substance, and It isconscious of Itself.

That Self-consciousness of Universal Substance iscalled God, and you are

inseparable from It, ultimately. But in the act ofcreation, due to the

interference of space and time, this separationconsciousness has arisen,

unfortunately, and each part of the UniversalSubstance began to assert itself

as something totally different from It. A part of that mind gets

separated from the total whole; It assertsitself as I am so-and-so, even down

to the insects and the atoms. And, thenthat consciousness of isolatedness from

the Cosmic Substance solidifiesitself into sense organs, and instruments of

action,-called the body, thebrain, the heart, the lungs, and so many things.

So, actually, I am slowly,unconsciously, jumping into a cosmological subject,

which I wanted to avoid. You are then a cosmic being, basically, and if

you know this, youshall be free. You shall have no problems. This is another

way of sayingthat your consciousness is a part of God-consciousness.Spanish

Visitor: And to be aware of that is through meditation?SWAMIJI: It is through

meditation, and great self-restraint-control of thesense organs, and meditation

correctly practiced under the guidance of acompetent person.Spanish Visitor:

There is a lot of confusion about meditation.SWAMIJI: Yes, I know. It has to be

carefully conducted, and it is not aneasy thing. In the beginning, it looks

easy; afterwards, it becomes a littledifficult. It requires a competent teacher

in the case of every person.